PART V THE UNION · CHAPTER III.— LEGISLATIVE POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT

Article 123: Power of President to promulgate Ordinances during recess of Parliament

(1) If at any time, except when both Houses of Parliament are in session, the President is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action, he may promulgate such Ordinances as the circumstances appear to him to require.

(2) An Ordinance promulgated under this article shall have the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament, but every such Ordinance—

(a) shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament and shall cease to operate at the expiration of six weeks from the reassembly of Parliament, or, if before the expiration of that period resolutions disapproving it are passed by both Houses, upon the passing of the second of those resolutions; and

(b) may be withdrawn at any time by the President.

Explanation.— Where the Houses of Parliament are summoned to reassemble on different dates, the period of six weeks shall be reckoned from the later of those dates for the purposes of this clause.

(3) If and so far as an Ordinance under this article makes any provision which Parliament would not under this Constitution be competent to enact, it shall be void.

¹(4) ************

Footnotes in the official text

1.Ins. by the Constitution (Thirty-eighth Amendment) Act, 1975, s. 2 (with retrospective effect) and omitted by the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978, s. 16 (w.e.f. 20-6-1979).

Leading cases

Krishna Kumar Singh v. State of Bihar (2017)A seven-judge bench held that the chain of Bihar Ordinances on Sanskrit schools, re-promulgated without being laid before the legislature, was a fraud on the Constitution, and that the enduring rights theory of Bhupendra Kumar Bose is not correct law.

Questions on this article

10 questions in 19 of our papers cite Article 123. Try these from the free papers:

1. Assertion (A): The President may promulgate an Ordinance even when both Houses of Parliament are in session, if circumstances require immediate action. Reason (R): Under Article 123(2), an Ordinance promulgated by the President has the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament.
2. Under Article 123(1), the President may promulgate an Ordinance:
3. An Ordinance is promulgated on 10 May. Parliament is later summoned: the House of the People reassembles on 1 July and the Council of States on 8 July. No resolution disapproving the Ordinance is passed, and it is neither withdrawn nor replaced by an Act. The Ordinance will cease to operate at the expiration of six weeks from:

Practise questions on Constitutional Law