Cabinet Committee on Accommodation: What It Decides and Who Chairs It
The Cabinet Committee on Accommodation frames the rules for allotting government housing and office space, and clears the cases that break those rules. It is chaired by the Union Home Minister, not the Prime Minister, and it is one of eight standing Cabinet Committees. Here is what it does, where its authority comes from, and the two or three facts prelims actually tests.
The Cabinet Committee on Accommodation frames the rules for allotting government housing and office space, and clears the cases that break those rules. It is chaired by the Union Home Minister, not the Prime Minister, and it is one of eight standing Cabinet Committees. Here is what it does, where its authority comes from, and the two or three facts prelims actually tests.
What the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation actually decides
The Cabinet Committee on Accommodation (CCA) decides who gets government housing, office space and land, and on what terms. It is chaired by the Union Home Minister, not the Prime Minister, and it is one of the eight standing Cabinet Committees in India. Its work is two-sided: it lays down the guidelines for allotment from the general pool, and it clears the cases that sit outside those guidelines.
That second half is where the real power lies. Ordinary allotments are routine and run on entitlement and seniority. The exceptions are political.
- Frames the guidelines and criteria for allotting government accommodation, and approves changes to them
- Decides allotment of government accommodation out of turn or beyond entitlement, in cases referred to it
- Approves allotment of government land, buildings and office space in Delhi to organisations and institutions
- Considers accommodation for MPs, ministers and former office holders where the normal rules do not cover the request
- Clears proposals on office space for government departments and bodies
Who sits on it, and why the PM stays out
The Home Minister chairs. The Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs is on it almost by definition, because the estate machinery sits inside that ministry. The Finance Minister and the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs are usual members too. Membership is small, generally five or six, and it changes with every reshuffle, so do not waste memory on names.
Memorise the chair instead. And memorise this: Accommodation and Parliamentary Affairs are the only two Cabinet Committees the Prime Minister neither chairs nor is a member of. Both are currently headed by the Home Minister. That single line has produced more prelims marks than the entire mandate of the committee.
One caution. The Home Minister has not always been the chair of the CCA. In earlier governments the minister in charge of urban development sometimes held it. Chairmanship follows the Prime Minister's decision, not a fixed rule.
| Cabinet Committee | Chaired by |
|---|---|
| Appointments | Prime Minister |
| Political Affairs | Prime Minister |
| Economic Affairs | Prime Minister |
| Security | Prime Minister |
| Investment and Growth | Prime Minister |
| Employment and Skill Development | Prime Minister |
| Parliamentary Affairs | Home Minister |
| Accommodation | Home Minister |
Where its authority comes from
Nowhere in the Constitution. Search for the CCA in the text and you will not find it, or any other Cabinet Committee.
The chain is short. Article 77(3) lets the President make rules for the more convenient transaction of government business and its allocation among ministers. Those rules are the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961. Rule 6 allows the Prime Minister to constitute standing committees of the Cabinet and to specify what each will handle. So the Prime Minister creates them, staffs them, reshuffles them and can wind them up. That is exactly what happened in June 2019, when two new committees on Investment and Growth and on Employment and Skill Development took the count to eight.
A decision of a Cabinet Committee carries the force of a Cabinet decision. The full Cabinet can still take up a matter, but in practice it rarely revisits what a committee has settled. That is the whole point of the arrangement: the Cabinet is too big and too busy to argue about a bungalow in Lutyens' Delhi.
Why it lands in the newspapers
Government housing in Delhi is scarce, coded by type from the smallest quarters to the sprawling bungalows, and enormously symbolic. Entitlement lapses when office does. So when a former minister, a defeated MP, a party office or a trust wants to keep or acquire space it is not strictly entitled to, the file travels to the CCA.
The committee does policy, not paperwork. Actual allotment and eviction are handled by the Directorate of Estates under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, working to the rules the CCA approves. Read a report about a bungalow being retained, an office being allotted to a political party, or land in the capital going to an institute, and the approving authority behind it is usually this committee.
That is also why questions about it are almost never analytical. Nobody is asking you to critique accommodation policy. They are asking whether you know who chairs it.
The exam handle
Hold three things. The CCA is one of eight standing Cabinet Committees, it is chaired by the Home Minister, and along with Parliamentary Affairs it is the committee the Prime Minister sits out of. Add a fourth if you want insurance: the source is Rule 6 of the Transaction of Business Rules, 1961, traced back to Article 77(3), not to any Article about the Cabinet itself.
UPSC tends to test Cabinet Committees as a set, usually through statement-matching on who chairs what. So learn the full list of eight together, in one sitting, rather than meeting them one at a time across six months of current affairs. Revise it as a table. Then close the book and write the eight names and their chairs from memory, because that is the only version of the list that will be available to you in the exam hall.
FAQs
1. Who is the chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation?
The Union Home Minister chairs it. Under the present government that is Amit Shah, who has held the chair since 2019. The chairmanship is decided by the Prime Minister and has been held by other ministers in earlier governments.
2. How many Cabinet Committees are there in India?
Eight standing Cabinet Committees. The number rose to eight in June 2019 when the committees on Investment and Growth and on Employment and Skill Development were created. The Prime Minister can add, merge or abolish committees at any time.
3. Which Cabinet Committees is the Prime Minister not a member of?
Two: the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation and the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs. He chairs the other six, including Appointments, Security, Economic Affairs and Political Affairs.
4. Is the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation mentioned in the Constitution?
No. Cabinet Committees are extra-constitutional. They are set up under Rule 6 of the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961, which flow from Article 77(3) of the Constitution.
5. Who actually allots government bungalows in Delhi?
The Directorate of Estates, under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, handles allotment, retention and eviction from the general pool. It applies the guidelines that the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation approves, and refers out-of-turn or exceptional cases to that committee.
6. Is a Cabinet Committee decision the same as a Cabinet decision?
Yes, in effect. Decisions of a Cabinet Committee carry the authority of a Cabinet decision, though the full Cabinet retains the power to review any matter placed before a committee.