There has been a steady decrease in the number of ordinances promulgated by the Centre since 2019. An analysis of the year-wise data on the number of ordinances shows that the highest number of ordinances promulgated by the NDA government (both terms combined) was in 2019 when 16 of them were issued. However, the numbers have dropped since then.

This is in contrast to how things were during the first Modi government. During its five-year tenure, it had issued the third-highest number of ordinances ever promulgated by an elected government in the country — 57.

An ordinance is a law promulgated by the President of India on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet, which will have the same effect as an Act of Parliament. This is done only when the Parliament is not in session. An ordinance is typically not preferable since it bypasses democratic processes laid down by the Constitution.

In 2022, for the first time in 59 years, no ordinances were promulgated. In 2023, however, the Centre issued the controversial ‘The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance’. It overturned a Supreme Court judgment which noted that the Delhi government can make laws and administer civil services in the national capital.

Also read: Delhi ordinance does not change the Constitutional position: P Chidambaram

“There could be a couple of reasons why there has been a drop in the number of ordinances promulgated since 2019. By then, the ruling NDA had a majority in the Rajya Sabha. Also, the pandemic had affected the working hours of the government,” said Tanvi Dubey, a lawyer at the Supreme Court.

History of ordinances

A closer look at the historical data of ordinances shows that every government, since Jawaharlal Nehru’s period, has resorted to the ordinance route to pass Bills. The first elected Nehru government promulgated 39 ordinances between April 1952​ and April 1957​. The number was 19 in his second tenure between April 1957 and March 1962. This was despite the Indian National Congress’ single-party majority in both Houses.

Unsurprisingly, the numbers shot up during the Emergency. Between March 1971 and January 1977, the Indira Gandhi-led government promulgated 93 ordinances, including the ones curtailing the freedom of press.

“If you look at the logic behind ordinances, this is an emergency provision that is made available to the executive, to get the legislation passed when the Parliament is not in session. But what has happened is that, very often the government has used the ordinance route to try and circumvent the fact that it does not have the necessary numbers in the Parliament or the State legislature to pass a Bill,” said political scientist and academic Sandeep Shastri.

Post Emergency

Post-Emergency was when India saw the emergence of coalition governments, where no single party exercised majority in the Parliament. The PV Narasimha Rao led-government was one of such and it holds the record for promulgating the most number of ordinances in India — 109.

“This was a minority government. Also, a lot of economic reforms and proposals possibly came into that through the ordinance route,” Shastri said. That was the time when liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation took off. Many important reforms, including the formation of SEBI, The Capital Issues (Control) Repeal Ordinance and The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (Amendment), were promulgated at that time.

While the number of ordinances promulgated by the following governments were fewer comparatively, the first Modi government swam against the tide. Some of the notable ordinances promulgated at that time includes the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, The Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Ordinance, 2016 and the GST (Compensation to States) Amendment Ordinance, 2017.

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