Question

The Ordinance making power of the President under the Indian Constitution is:

• A. An Executive power
• B. A legislative power
• C. Quasi-legislative power
• D. Quasi executive power

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

The Correct Option is (A):An Executive power

Answer 2

This question asks how to classify, in terms of separation of powers, the President's power under Article 123 to issue an ordinance when Parliament is not in session.

1. An Executive power: the President exercises this power personally rather than through Parliament, which makes it tempting to call it executive. But an executive power, properly understood, only implements or applies laws that already exist; it does not create new law with binding force on everyone. An ordinance does create new law, so labelling the power purely executive misses what it actually does.
2. A legislative power: Article 123(2) provides that an ordinance has the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament, meaning it can amend, suspend or repeal existing statutes exactly as Parliament itself could. Chapter III of Part V of the Constitution, which contains Article 123, is headed Legislative Powers of the President, showing that the framers themselves classified this power as legislative in character, even though the President, an executive functionary, exercises it. In Rustom Cavasjee Cooper v. Union of India, the Bank Nationalisation case decided in 1970, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that ordinance-making is an executive act, holding that an ordinance is as much an exercise of legislative power as a statute passed by Parliament, and is subject to the same fundamental rights limits under Part III.
3. Quasi-legislative power: this term is usually used for delegated or subordinate rule-making, where an authority frames rules or regulations under powers given to it by an Act of the legislature, such as a ministry issuing rules under an enabling statute. An ordinance is not delegated or subordinate law at all; it stands on the same footing as a Parliament-made Act, so calling it merely quasi-legislative understates its actual legal force.
4. Quasi executive power: this label would fit a power that mixes administrative discretion with some limited law-like effect, such as issuing licenses or administrative orders. It does not describe the ordinance power, since an ordinance binds the entire population with the force of primary law, well beyond an administrative act.

Both the constitutional text, through the Chapter III heading and Article 123(2), and the Supreme Court's reasoning in R.C. Cooper v. Union of India, confirm that the ordinance-making power, though vested in the President, is legislative rather than executive in nature.

So the correct answer is A legislative power.