SMU Assistant Professor of Law Shubhankar Dam’s interest in the different ways by which India's executive controls its legislature got him to take a closer look at the country's use of the "ordinance system" for passing laws. He realised that there had been no study documenting the pattern of promulgating ordinances since 1952, when this constitutional provision was first used. Last month, Assistant Prof Dam published a book, Presidential Legislation in India: The Law and Practice of Ordinances (Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy), studying every ordinance promulgated since 1952. After studying the 615 ordinances issued by Parliament between 1952 and 2006, he has concluded that this facility has been used by governments to “subvert Parliament” and adds that “with the exception of a single ordinance”, every other law could have waited for the next legislative session.