Polity · Legislative Procedure & Types of Bills
The concept being tested: Ordinance — scope and limitations (Article 123).
With reference to the Indian polity, consider the following statements: I. An Ordinance can amend any Central Act. II. An Ordinance can abridge a Fundamental Right. III. An Ordinance can come into effect from a back date. Which of the statements given above are correct?
Article 123 gives an Ordinance 'the same force and effect as an Act of Parliament'. That equivalence is what settles all three statements. Because an Ordinance ranks as law equal to a parliamentary Act, it can amend or repeal any Central Act, just as a later Act of Parliament could — so an Ordinance amending any Central Act is correct. The same equivalence means an Ordinance can carry retrospective operation like ordinary legislation, so it can be dated to take effect from before its promulgation — an Ordinance coming into effect from a back date is also correct. But being 'law' also brings an Ordinance within Article 13(2), which voids any law that abridges or takes away a Fundamental Right. Parliament itself cannot abridge Part III through an ordinary Act, and an Ordinance, standing in for Parliament during recess, inherits that same constraint rather than escaping it. So an Ordinance abridging a Fundamental Right does not hold.
What UPSC was testing
The trap here is the phrase 'same force and effect as an Act of Parliament' in Article 123(2) — aspirants correctly extend it to justify amending a Central Act and backdating an Ordinance, but many wrongly assume this equivalence also frees the Ordinance from Part III, when it actually binds the Ordinance to the same Article 13(2) limit that restrains Parliament itself.
How often this comes up
This concept has appeared 12 times in UPSC Prelims General Studies Paper I between 2015 and 2025 — in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The option-by-option autopsy for this question — why each of the other three is wrong, and which neighbouring concept each one was built from — is in the app.