Ordinance-making power: what an Ordinance can (and can't) do

An Ordinance is the President's power, under Article 123, to legislate when Parliament is not in session and immediate action is needed. It exists because a country cannot simply pause governance whenever both Houses happen to be out of session, but it is deliberately built as an emergency tool, not a parallel law-making track.

Same force as an Act: with one hard limit

An Ordinance has the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament. That means it can do almost everything a regular law can do: amend or repeal an existing Central Act, impose taxes, or apply retrospectively. The one thing it can never do, because it carries the same legal status as ordinary law, no more and no less, is abridge or take away a Fundamental Right. An Ordinance is bound by Part III of the Constitution exactly as any Act of Parliament is.

Retrospective effect is allowed

Because an Ordinance functions as a full-strength law, it can be given retrospective effect, just like an ordinary Act, a fact that surprises students who assume "emergency" measures must only apply going forward.

How long an Ordinance lasts

An Ordinance must be laid before Parliament when it reconvenes, and it lapses six weeks from the reassembly of Parliament unless approved by both Houses before that. In practice, this means an Ordinance's real lifespan depends entirely on when Parliament next sits. It could be in force for months if Parliament was recently prorogued, or for just a few weeks if a session is imminent.

The state-level version: Article 213

Governors have an equivalent power under Article 213 to promulgate Ordinances for a State when its Legislature is not in session, subject to broadly the same limits, and in certain cases requiring prior instructions from the President before the Governor can act.

Why UPSC likes this topic

It is a compact, high-yield area: a handful of precise rules (same force as an Act; cannot touch Fundamental Rights; can be retrospective; six-week lapse window) that combine into many different three-statement questions. Once you have the rules memorised as a short list, most Ordinance questions become a quick recall exercise rather than a reasoning one.