What is Intermediate Legislative Power?

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2012

Abstract

The President in India’s parliamentary system is authorized to promulgate legislation under Article 123.1 While such legislation, or ‘ordinances’, enjoy the same force and effect as Acts, they are distinct in some ways. First, ordinances lack legislative deliberation: the President promulgates them ‘except when both Houses of Parliament are in session’. Secondly, it depends on the President’s satisfaction that ‘circumstances exist that render it necessary for him to take immediate action’. And they are transient: ordinances cease to operate on the expiry of six weeks from the reassembly of Parliament unless withdrawn earlier or formally enacted into law. Ordinances, then, are typical cases of executive legislation. Authored by the Council of Ministers to the exclusion of Parliament and discretionarily promulgated into effect by the President, they are products of a parallel—and exceptional—power to legislate.

Discipline

Asian Studies | Legislation | President/Executive Department

Publication

Statute Law Review

Volume

33

Issue

2

First Page

81

Last Page

97

ISSN

0144-3593

Identifier

10.1093/slr/hmt002

Publisher

Oxford University Press

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