Court case(1987) 1 SCC 378

Dr. D.C. Wadhwa, a professor of economics at Pune, documented that between 1967 and 1981 the Governor of Bihar had promulgated 256 ordinances and kept them alive by re-promulgating them again and again, sometimes for up to fourteen years, without ever placing them before the Legislature. Among them was the Bihar Non-Government Sanskrit Schools (Taking Over of Management and Control) Ordinance, which had been re-promulgated repeatedly. Wadhwa and some affected teachers filed a petition under Article 32 challenging the practice.

Bhagwati CJ held that the power under Article 213 is an emergency power to meet a situation when the Legislature is not in session; it is not a parallel source of legislation. An ordinance must cease to operate six weeks after the Legislature reassembles, and the Government must then either get an Act passed or let the ordinance lapse. To re-promulgate the same ordinance without placing it before the Legislature is a colourable exercise of power and a fraud on the Constitution; it subverts the legislative process. The Court refused to invalidate all the ordinances retrospectively but declared the practice unconstitutional and struck down the Sanskrit Schools Ordinance. A citizen who is affected, and indeed any member of the public, has standing to challenge an unconstitutional practice of this kind.