Key Terms & Concepts — UPSC Mains
Ordinance-Making Power
"The executive's power to make laws through ordinances when Parliament or a state legislature is not in session."
The ordinance-making power lets the President under Article 123 (and a Governor under Article 213) promulgate ordinances that have the same force as an Act of Parliament or the state legislature when the House is not in session and immediate action is needed. An ordinance must be laid before the legislature when it reconvenes and ceases to operate six weeks from reassembly unless approved. It is an emergency legislative tool that courts have cautioned against using to bypass the legislature.
GS2 (Parliament, executive, separation of powers). Prelims tests Articles 123 and 213 and the six-week rule. Mains debates re-promulgation and the D.C. Wadhwa and Krishna Kumar Singh precedents. Anchor: ordinances remained in active use in 2025-26, such as the ordinance on the number of Supreme Court judges, keeping the debate on executive law-making alive.
- 1 President under Article 123; Governor under Article 213
- 2 Available only when the legislature is not in session
- 3 Ordinances have the same force as a legislative Act
- 4 Must be laid before the House and lapse six weeks after it reassembles
- 5 Re-promulgation without legislative sanction has been held unconstitutional
- 6 Subject to judicial review on the satisfaction to issue it
The 2025-26 ordinance revising the sanctioned strength of Supreme Court judges illustrated the continuing reliance on the executive's ordinance-making power between parliamentary sessions.
