Discuss the constitutional provisions governing the President's Ordinance-making power and examine the significance of Ordinances being replaced by regular legislation, with reference to the Monsoon Session, 2026.

Article 123 empowers the President to promulgate an Ordinance when Parliament is not in session and immediate action is necessary [2]. It is an emergency legislative device, not a parallel law-making route — a point underlined when the Monsoon Session, 2026 converted two standing Ordinances into Acts [1].

Constitutional framework of the Ordinance power

• Article 123(1): exercisable only when both Houses are not in session, on the President's satisfaction that circumstances require immediate action; the power is exercised on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers under Article 74 [2].
• Same force as an Act: an Ordinance has the force and effect of a law of Parliament, but is coextensive in scope — it cannot do what Parliament itself cannot enact [2].
• Article 123(2): it must be laid before both Houses and ceases to operate six weeks from reassembly, or earlier if disapproved by resolutions of both Houses — a built-in legislative check [2].
• Withdrawal by the President is permitted at any time; Article 213 provides the parallel power for Governors [2].

Significance of replacement by regular legislation

• Restores legislative primacy: the Monsoon Session, 2026 passed Bills replacing the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Ordinance, 2026 and the Income-Tax (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026, converting executive law into deliberated statute [1].
• Provides legal certainty: without replacement the Ordinances would lapse, unsettling judicial strength and tax administration.
• Curbs re-promulgation, which the Supreme Court has held to be a fraud on the Constitution.
• But deliberation was thin: Lok Sabha productivity was about 19% and Rajya Sabha about 39%, with 12 Bills passed amid disruption [1] — replacement risks becoming a formality.

Ordinances are legitimate as a bridge, not a substitute; their conversion into Acts in the Monsoon Session, 2026 shows the Article 123 cycle working procedurally. Strengthening it now requires adequate debate time and committee scrutiny, so that the constitutional preference for a deliberative legislature is honoured in substance as well as in form.