The Ultra Vires Question: Can Article 93 Override Article 142?

The Constitution Watchdog (CW) presents this exhaustive research report to address the most pivotal constitutional question facing the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in the post-uprising era of 2026. As the nation approaches the scheduled referendum on February 12, 2026, the legal mechanisms employed by the Interim Government to fundamentally restructure the state have come under intense scrutiny. Specifically, the issuance of the “July National Charter (Constitu-tional Amendment) Implementation Order, 2025” and the subsequent “Referendum Ordinance, 2025” has precipitated a direct conflict between two distinct constitutional powers: the legisla- tive power of the President under Article 93 and the constituent power of Parliament under Article 142. This report, authored from a strictly non-political and scholarly perspective, investigates whether the President of Bangladesh possesses the authority to initiate constitutional amendments via an Ordinance when Parliament stands dissolved. Our analysis is grounded in a strict statutory interpretation of the Constitution of 1972, historical precedents of South Asian jurisprudence, and the emerging theories of “revolutionary legality” invoked by the current administration.