Did the Government notify an ordinance last week even before it received Presidential assent? It did, claims a lawyer, who plans to move the court with the prayer to declare the ordinance null and void.

The procedural and Constitutional lapse, claims senior advocate Arvind Jain, occurred when the Government notified an ordinance providing for a maximum punishment of death by hanging for rapists of children below 12.

Jain claims that the ordinance was apparently approved by the Union cabinet on Saturday, April 21 and notified the same evening. The ordinance, however, received Presidential assent the next day, Sunday, on April 22.

“It’s unprecedented in the history of independent India,” Jain told National Herald, and added, “even when the state of Emergency was declared, the President’s assent was sought.” It was around 11 pm at night when the President signed it before it was notified. The signature of the President was a Constitutional necessity then and remains so even now.