DC Wadhwa vs. State of Bihar, 1987

It was argued in DC Wadhwa vs. State of Bihar (1987) that the legislative power of the executive to promulgate Ordinances is to be used in exceptional circumstances and not as a substitute for the law making power of the legislature.

Here, the court was examining a case where a State government (under the authority of the Governor) continued to re-promulgate ordinances, i.e. it repeatedly issued new ordinances to replace the old ones; instead of laying them before the State Legislature. A total of 259 Ordinances were re-promulgated, some of them for as long as 14 years.

The Supreme Court argued that if Ordinance making was made a usual practice, creating an

‘Ordinance Raj’, the courts could strike down re-promulgated Ordinances.