ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA
è Article 52 states that there shall be a President of India.
The executive powers of the Union shall
be vested in the President. He, as the head of a state, symbolises the nation.
In some democratic systems, the head of the state is also the head of the
government and, therefore, he will also be the head of the political executive.
The US Presidency represents this form. In Britain, the monarch is the symbolic
head, representing the British nation. The powers of the Government are vested
in the political office of the Prime Minister. In Indian Parliamentary democracy
we have adopted the latter form. The President of India is the first citizen
and represents the Indian nation and does not, therefore, belong to any
particular political party. He is elected by the representatives of the people
through an Electoral College.
è Article 54 of the constitution says:
"The President shall be elected by
the members of an electoral college consisting of -
(a) The elected members of both Houses
of Parliament and
(b) The elected members of the
Legislative Assemblies of the States (including National Capital Territory of
Delhi and the Union Territory of Pondicherry vide the Constitution 70th
amendment Act, 1992)."
Thus in the election of the President
the citizens play no direct part and he is elected indirectly by the representatives
or the people, like the American President but no special electoral college is
elected, as in the case of America. Another point of difference that may be
noted is that the election of the President of India is by the system of
proportional representation, by the single transferable vote, as provided by
Article 55(3) of the Constitution, while the American President is elected by
the straight vote system.
Preference For Indirect Election
The process of election of the President
of India is original and no other Constitution contains a similar procedure.
The question was considerably debated in the Constituent Assembly. It was
argued by many members that the electoral college consisting of the elected
members of Central Legislature as well as those of the Legislative Assemblies
of the States was not sufficiently representative of Peoples' will. Some
members, therefore, favoured the system of direct election by the people
instead of an indirect round-about method, because such a system would be most
democratic and it would make the President a direct choice of the nation. This
was, however, not accepted. The main reasons which influenced the deliberations
of the Constituent Assembly for determining indirect Presidential election are:
(1) Firstly, in a country following the
Cabinet system of Government, the office of titular Chief Executive is a
technical one, to the extent that its duties are largely prescribed by other
authorities (usually by the Legislature), which requires specific competence for
the performance of its duties from the incumbent. Very few voters can be
competent to judge wisely of the technical abilities of the candidates for any
particular office of this type, having specific, limited and defined functions.
(2) Secondly, if the direct election of
the President were adopted, the Presidential candidate who has to carry on an
election campaign from one corner of the country to another will certainly be
put up by some party or the other, which may cause political excitement and generate
party feelings. Thus the man elected to the Presidential office through this
means will never be able to forget his party affiliations. So the ideal of
getting a non-party man outside the turmoil of party passions and reasonably
respected by all factions to assume the role of the head of the State will be
defeated. Further, as India is almost a sub-continent with crores of
enfranchised citizens, it would be impossible to provide an electoral machinery
for the purpose of smooth and successful Presidential election.
(3) Lastly, a directly elected Chief
Executive may not be content with his position of a mere constitutional head
and can claim to derive his authority directly from the people. So, if he
wanted to assume real power, it would lead to a constitutional deadlock and an
inevitable clash with the Cabinet or real executive. This would definitely
produce a confusion of responsibility.
Such a contingency had happened when
under the French Constitution of 1848 the President of the French Republic,
Louis Napoleon, was elected by the direct vote of the people, and by exploiting
this system, he had overthrown the Republic to establish the empire with
himself as emperor. To prevent the recurrence of such a contingency, the French
people in their later constitutions discredited and abandoned the system of
electing the head of State by the direct vote of the people.
Middle Course
A middle course was chosen by the
framers of the Indian Constitution in order to make the Presidential office
more broad-based. The electoral college for Presidential election has been
expanded so as to include the elected members of the State Assemblies all over
India, which means that the President is chosen by the nation as a whole,
indirectly, through the elected representatives of the people and is thus not
the representative of a particular constituency but of the nation. Through this
device he is also not necessarily to be a man of the majority party in
Parliament. This has also the additional advantage of investing the President
with greater moral independence and authority which would have not been
possible, had he been a man virtually elected by the majority party in
Parliament.
This indirect election of the President
of India takes place with the participation of both directly elected members of
Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies, and indirectly-elected members of Rajya
Sabha. Each citizen of India is represented in Parliament and the State
Legislative Assembly, because, the members of Lok Sabha and MLAs are elected on
the basis of universal adult suffrage. The members nominated by the President
have no right to vote in this election. Similarly, the members of the
Legislative Councils of the State Legislatures, wherever they exist, have also
been excluded from the electoral college.
Some Pertinent Questions
The Presidential election is not free
from difficulties. Election of the President can be held even if some seats in
the Electoral College are vacant. Such election cannot be called in question on
the ground of any vacancy existing for whatever reasons, among the members of
the Electoral College electing a person either as President or Vice-President.
Further, a President in office can change the composition of the Electoral
College by dissolving one or more hostile Legislative Assemblies under Article
172(1) or 174(26) or under 356(1) of the Constitution of India.
Under such circumstances how can there by
uniformity in the scale of representation? Is it under "as far as
practicable?" Article 71(4), therefore, may be construed as repugnant to
the purposes embodied in Article 55(4). Further, Article 55 is conspicuously
silent on whether there will be representation of all or each State in the
Presidential election, although there is vacancy in the electoral College. It
only provides for "the different States." Since there is no guarantee
to ensure non-vacancy in the Presidential Electoral College, the phrase,
"the elected members of Legislative Assemblies of States" means only
those who are actually in office at the time of Presidential Election.
The elected members of a suspended
Assembly are entitled to take part in the Presidential election. For example,
the MLAs of Rajasthan participated in the Presidential Election in 1967 though
the Assembly was kept under suspended animation under Article 356(1) (c) of the
Constitution.
So also the MLAs of Bihar had cast their
votes in the Presidential Election of 1969. But holding of election at a time
when the House of the People stands dissolved could be simply a dangerous
practice. In view of these possible mischiefs, neither the Constitution nor the
Eleventh Amendment provided for any remedy against creation of calculated or
premeditated vacancies in the electoral college.
The framers of the Constitution have not
provided against election of the President by a lame-duck Electoral College. It
is generally expected that a newly-elected Electoral College will elect the
President but the new Electoral College might not have come into existence when
the Presidential Election is due or the term of the House of People is extended
under Article 83(2) of the Constitution. If the term of the House is extended,
the President may be elected by the lame-duck Electoral College. Under Article
56(1)(c), the President continues in office until his successor enters upon the
office. It can neither be extended nor postponed under normal circumstances.
The Presidential election must be held
before the expiration of his term of office. The Election Commission shall
issue the notification on or as soon as conveniently may be, after, the
sixtieth day before the expiration of the term of office of the out-going
President or Vice-President, as the case may be. The election of the President
must be completed within the time fixed by Article 62(1). Thus, the time limit
is mandatory.
In case of death, resignation or removal
by impeachment, the election of the President by the lame-duck Electoral
College is imperative. There is scope for the exercise of discretion by the
Election commission of India in favour of the party in power by completing the
election by the lame-duck Electoral College within the prescribed period of
sixty days. But there should be a categorical provision in the constitution
prohibiting such Presidential election by the Electoral College.
However, the architects of the
constitution intended an extensive electoral college as a necessary
institutional prerequisite for their own conception of the office. The
Presidential constituency is wider than the constituencies meant for electing
the members of the Union Parliament. It also does not embrace the entire
national electorate. Consequently, the incumbent does not remain responsible to
the Union Parliament alone. Being indirectly elected, the President is not
likely to develop political ambitions so as to provide alternate political
leadership. The nature of composition of the Presidential Electoral College has
made him the golden thread of Federal relationship. In the context of the
recently-emerging federal trends of the Indian constitutional system and the
radical changes in the political scene after 1967, the Presidential office is
pregnant with possibilities of far-reaching consequences and even as the actual
balancing-wheel of our federal polity.
Procedure for the
Election of the President
The Constitution provides for the
election of the President by the system of proportional representation by means
of the single transferable vote. The Constitution also provides for weighting
of votes in the election of the President based on two fundamental principles.
First, to secure as far as possible, uniformity in the scale of representation
of different States of the Union, which emphasises the similarity in the status
of the States of the Union. And secondly, to secure parity between the States
as a whole and the Union in order to work up the idea of federal compact. For
the purpose of securing such uniformity and parity the following method is laid
down. this method makes the Presidential election complicated.
In order to secure uniformity in the
scale of representation of the different States it is provided that every
elected member of the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) of a State has to
cast as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient
obtained by dividing the population of the State by the total number of elected
members of the Assembly, and if, after taking the said multiples of one thousand,
the remainder is not less than five hundred, the votes of each member referred
to above are further increased by one. To put it in simpler words, each member
of the electoral college who is a member of a State Legislative Assembly will
have a number of votes calculated as follows:
Total Population of the State
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Divided by 1000
Total number of elected members in the
Legislative Assembly.
Fractions exceeding one half being
counted as one.
The following illustrations explain the
method of calculation:
(i) "The population of Andhra
Pradesh is 43,502,708. Let us take the total number of elected members in the
Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh to be 294. To obtain the number of votes
which each such elected member will be entitled to cast at the election of the
President we have first to divide 43,502,708 (which is the population) by 294
(which is the total number of elected members), and then to divide the quotient
by 1,000. In this case the quotient is 147,968.3945. The number of votes which
each such member will be entitled to cast would be 147,968.3945/1000 i.e. 148.
(ii) Again, the population of Punjab is
1,35,51,060. Let us take the total number of elected members of the Legislature
of Punjab to be 117. Now applying the aforesaid process, if we divide
1,35,51,060 (i.e. the population) by 117 (i.e. the total number of elected
members), the quotient is 115821.0256. Therefore, the number of votes which
each member of the Punjab Legislature would be entitled to cast is
115,821.0256/1000 i.e. 116.
Each elected member of either House of
Parliament shall have such number of votes as may be obtained by dividing the
total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative Assemblies of
the States under sub-clauses (a) and (b) by the total number of the elected
members of both Houses of Parliament, fractions exceeding one-half being
counted as one and other fractions being disregarded.
Total number of votes assigned to the
elected members of the State Assemblies
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total number of elected members of both
Houses of the Parliament
Fractions exceeding one-half being
counted as one.
For the Presidential election, the
population of a State is taken to be the population at the last preceding
census.
Proportional Representation
Article 55(3) of Indian Constitution
requires that the President should be elected in accordance with the system of
proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.
The underlying principle of proportional
representation is to prevent the exclusion of minorities from the benefits of
the State, and to give each minority group an effective share in the political
life. The aim of proportional representation is to give every division of
opinion among electors corresponding representation in national or local
assemblies. In the ordinary mode of election known as "straight voting
system", what happens is that a candidate getting the support of the
numerically largest group is elected, although the combined strength of all
other candidates representing different other parties may far out-number his
supporters. The result is that the elected candidate cannot be said to
represent the opinion of the majority of the electorate as a whole. The
following illustrations will amply reveal this fact.
In Nandigram South (Midnapore)
constituency of the West Bengal State, the following is the ledger of polling:
P.C. Jena (Congress) 15,320
Bhupal Panda (Communist Party) 14,926
I.C. Mahapatra (Jan Sangh) 5,204
K.L. Bera (KMPP) 3,184
38,634
It may be noticed that though 23,314
people voted against the Congress and only 15,320 in favour of it, yet the seat
went to Congress.
This kind of anomaly is sought to be
avoided by the system of Proportional Representation, and it is claimed that if
this system is practised all the parties or shades of political opinion amongst
the electorate will secure the number of seats in the elected body according to
their respective strength amongst the electorate.
How the Single Transferable Vote System
Works
The best known form of Proportional
Representation is that of the "Single Transferable Vote", which means
that each elector has only one vote, irrespective of the number of seats to be
filled up. For instance, if there are six seats to be filled up, the elector
does not cast six votes but indicates six successive preferences, by marking
his first preference and the succeeding preferences with the appropriate
numerals against the name of candidates printed on his ballot paper.
Quota of Votes
In the ordinary straight voting system a
candidate who secures the highest number of votes is declared elected, while
under the Proportional Representation system any member who secures the
necessary quota of votes is declared elected. There are several ways of finding
out the quota, but the most common method is to divide the total number of
valid votes cast by the total number of seats in the constituency plus one and
add one to the quotient. The formula may be represented as follows:
Total number of valid votes cast
Quota =
----------------------------------------------------------- +1
Total number of seats to be filled +1
Supposing there are 100 valid voting
papers and four seats are to be filled up. In order, therefore, to determine
the quota 100 is divided by 4 plus 1, i.e. 5 and the quotient arrived at,
namely 20, is increased by one so that the quota is 21. After the quota is
fixed, any candidate whose total number of first preference votes is equal to
or exceeds the quota is forthwith declared elected.
Distribution of Surplus Votes
Each successful candidate's surplus
votes of first preferences which are now of no use to him, are transferred to
other candidates proportionately to the second preferences indicated on the
whole of his papers (except that the second preferences shown for any other
candidate already elected are ignored and the third preferences on those papers
taken instead). The point is that every vote shall be made effective and not
allowed to go waste, while under the ordinary system of representation, the
votes of many electors are of no use.
Elimination of the Bottom Candidate
If all the seats are filled upon this
second count, the election is completed. But if all the required number of
candidates do not reach the quota by the distribution of surplus first
preferences votes of the candidates who have received more than the quota, the
process is reversed by dropping out the candidate who has the least number of
first preferences. The whole of his votes are transferred to the other not yet
elected candidates in accordance with the next available preferences shown on
his papers (next available means next excluding candidates already elected). If
this does not suffice to fill the remaining seat or seats, the process is
repeated by the exclusion of the candidate now at the bottom of polls and the
transfer of his votes as a whole in accordance with the next available
preferences shown on his papers. Eventually in this way all seats are filled.
Irrespective of the fact that a number
of seats may have to be filled, this system postulates one vote for each voter
with the reservation that this single vote is transferred to other candidates.
This is the reason why this system is known as "single transferable vote
system."
The question of proportional
representation in one sense can arise only in a multiple-member constituency
when there are several seats to be filled up. In that case, the surplus votes
are transferred to or distributed amongst the different candidates in order to
get the number of members required to be elected, according to the procedure
indicated above. Under the Constitution of India members of the Upper House of
Parliament and of the State Legislature are elected according to the above
formula.
How Proportional Representation Works in
the Election of the Indian President
In the case of the election of the
President and the Vice-President there is, however, only one member to be
elected. In this case, the Government of India has, nevertheless, prescribed
the manner in which the proportional representation is to work. The method
prescribed is generally known as the "alternative vote" in a
single-member constituency. The following illustration would explain it more
fully.
The total number of valid votes is
15,000 and there are four candidates, A,B,C,D. Suppose, they have polled votes
as follows:
A ..... ..... ..... ..... 5,250
B ..... ..... ..... ..... 4,800
C ..... ..... ..... ..... 2,700
D ..... ..... ..... ..... 2,250
In the ordinary system of election by
simple majority vote, A would be elected forthwith since a voter in this system
marks only one preference and as such no question of counting any further
preferences, say the second or the third, arises. In the case of the
"alternative vote system" it is, however, not so, as it may be that
the second best candidate may be declared elected, as against the candidate who
might have secured the majority of first preference votes. In the illustration
mentioned above the quota will be -
15,000
-------- +1 = 7501
1 + 1
No candidate who secures less than 7,501
votes can, in this case of election through the system of proportional
representation, be elected. It thus follows that if a candidate is able to
secure 7,501 or more first preference votes in his favour, he is immediately
declared elected and there does not remain any need to take a second or
subsequent count. But if, as in the given case, no candidate has secured this
quota, the subsequent preferences have to be counted, until a candidate
securing the prescribed limit of votes is found out. The Presidential and
Vice-Presidential Election Rules 1952 prescribes the procedure for counting up
the subsequent preferences as follows:
"- If at the end of the first or
any subsequent count, the total number of votes credited to any candidate is
equal to, or greater than, the quota, or there is any one continuing candidate,
that candidate is declared elected.
- If at the end of any count, no
candidate can be declared elected -
(a) exclude the candidate who upto that
stage has been credited with the lowest number of votes;
(b) examine all the ballot papers in his
parcel and sub-parcels, arrange the unexhausted papers in sub-parcels according
to the next available preferences recorded thereon for the continuing
candidates; count the number of votes in each such sub-parcel and credit it to
the candidate for whom such preference is recorded; transfer the sub-parcel of
all the exhausted papers; and
(c) see whether any of the continuing
candidates has, after such transfer and credit, secured the quota. If, when a
candidate has to be excluded under clause (a) above, two or more candidates
have been credited with the same number of votes and stand lowest on the poll,
exclude that candidate who has secured the lowest number of first preferences
votes, and if that number also was the same in the case of two or more
candidates, decide by lot which of them shall be excluded.
All sub-parcels of exhausted papers
referred to in clause (b) above, shall be set apart as finally dealt with and
the votes recorded thereon shall not thereafter be taken into account."
It would, therefore, be seen that in
case where no member has obtained the quota votes fixed for election, the
prescribed method of transfer of votes follows a process of elimination of the
candidate who is at the lowest rung in the order of polling according to the
first preference and so on, till at last such a candidate is found who has
obtained the quota of votes or if there is no such candidate, all candidates
except one are, one after the other, eliminated from the field. The candidate
who survives the process of elimination is in such a case returned as the
President or Vice-President, as the case may be.
An application of this process to the
illustration given above would reveal that D will be the first to be
eliminated, and the second preferences recorded in the 2,250 ballot papers on
which he has obtained the first preference will be transferred to the remaining
candidates, namely A, B, and C. Supposing in these 2250 ballot papers the
second preferences are recorded as follows:-
In favour of A ..... ..... 300
B ..... ..... 1050
C ..... ..... 900
These will be transferred and added to
the first preferences in favour of A, B and C as follows:-
A ..... 5,250 + 300 = 5,550
B ..... 4,800 + 1050 = 5,850
C ..... 2,700 + 900 = 3,600
Now in the second count, therefore, C
having obtained the last number of votes is eliminated and 3,600 votes secured
by him are once again transferred to A and B in the order of third preferences
recorded thereon. Suppose the third preferences on the 3,600 ballot papers
recorded in favour of A and B are 1700 and 1900 respectively the result of this
second transfer would then be as under:
A ..... 5,550 + 1,700 = 7,250
B ..... 5,850 + 1,900 = 7,750
B having, therefore, in this case
secured the quota of votes is elected and it is no longer necessary to count
the fourth preference. The illustration thus shows that although B had secured
lesser number of first preferences votes as compared to A, yet B is elected by
virtue of the second preferences obtained by him. This apparently anomalous
result is justified on the reasoning that if the views of the electors are
assessed through the doctrine of proportional representation it is clearly
revealed that B is preferred and supported by a numerically larger number of
electors than A and as such he is the one elected by a majority.
The present system of election for the
President has been adopted under the Constitution of India, in order to
maintain the neutrality of the head of State, which both the ceremonial
functions in any federation and the specific powers under a parliamentary
system demand and also to render it acceptable to as wide a body of opinion as
possible. But it should be remembered that the presidential office can be kept
above political turmoils only if the majority party at the Centre willingly
consults minority parties also before a nomination is announced. This is
desirable because, despite the provision that for the election of the President
the votes of the members of Parliament be equal to those of the Assemblies of
all the States taken together, the possibility cannot be set aside that State
Legislatures may at any time be dominated by parties other than the party in
power at the Centre and in such a case they might be able to defeat a nominee
of the majority party at the Centre.
TENTH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1992
The term of the Eighth President Shri R.
Venkataraman was to expire on 24.07.1992. Tenth Presidential Election was to be
held before that date. The Electoral College consisted of elected members of
Lok Sabha (543), Rajya Sabha (233) and 25 State Legislative Assemblies (3972).
Thus the total electors were 4748.
Each Member of Parliament had 702 votes
and the number of votes for each Member of the State Legislative Assemblies
differed from State to State on the basis of the population. The lowest value
of votes was for the MLAs of Sikkim State (07) and the highest value of votes
was for the MLAs of Uttar Pradesh (208). The value of votes was calculated on
the basis of 1971 census. At the time of this election the Legislative
Assemblies of J&K and Nagaland were under dissolution.
Following were the number of votes
polled by the candidates:-
1. Dr Shanker Dayal Sharma 6,75,864
2. Shri G.G. Swell 3,46,485
3. Shri Ram Jethmalani 2,704
4. Kaka Joginder Singh Urf Dharti-Pakad
1,135
--------------
TOTAL 10,26,188
Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma was declared
elected by the Returning Officer on 16.07.1992. He assumed office on
25.07.1992.
==================================================================================
The union executive consists of the
President and the Council of Ministers with the Prime Ministers at the head.
The members of the Constituent Assembly after a lot of deliberations decided in
favor of the British model of cabinet- system of Government or Parliamentary form
of government for India. Under this system the President of India is a nominal
head of the executive and the Prime Minister is the real head. Despite the fact
that the President of India is nominal head of the executive he plays a very
significant role in the constitutional set up of the country.
The constitution of India lays down way
simple qualification for the august office. He should be a citizen of India,
who has completed the age of thirty five years and is qualified to use elected
as a member of the House of the People. He should not hold any office of profit
under any government local authority. The President cannot be a Member of
Parliament or a state legislature simultaneously. If such a member is elected
President he has to resign his seat before assuming office.
He is entitled to a rent free official
accommodation in Rashtrapati Bhawan. His salary, allowances and privileges are
determined by the Parliament from time to time. Presently his monthly salary is
Rs.__________/- which cannot be reduced during his term of office. He also gets
Rs._________________/- towards his
annual pension after retirement.
The majority of members in the
Constituent Assembly after a great deal of debate decided in favour of an
indirectly elected President. The factors that influenced their decision were
a) his little effective powers in the constitutional set up of the country, b)
The large size of the Indian electorate, c) The financial burden on the
exchequer to elect a non-functional head of the state and d) The aspirations of
an elected President for more powers.
Art 53 lays down that the President
shall be elected by an electoral college consisting of a) the elected members
of the Parliament and b) the elected members of the state legislature
assemblies. The significance of including Legislative Assemblies in the
Electoral College is to ensure a non-partisan election of the President. If
only the Parliament elects the President it is just possible that the party
having a comfortable majority can get its candidate elected easily. But when
the Legislative Assemblies join the Electoral College the position might just
be different in view of the party positions in different Assemblies.
Election :
The President of India is elected
according to secret ballot by the system of proportional representation through
single transferable vote. An attempt is made to secure the uniformity of
representation of the different states, according to population and the total
number of elected members of legislative Assembly of each state so that parity
may be maintained between the state as a whole and the union. This has been
done to ensure that the votes of the states shall be equal to that of
population of the country. This makes the representative of the President broad
based.
In the election of the President the
weightage system is used to bring about a parity between the votes of the
members of Parliament and the members of the Assemblies. Since the strength of
legislative assemblies differ owing to differences in population the exact
weight of votes of the members of the Assemblies are determined by a definite
formula by dividing the population of the concerned state by the total number
of elected members of the Assembly which is further divided by one thousand. If
the remainder is less than to 500 is should not be taken into account. If it is
more than 500 the member should be increased by one.
For example According 1991 census the
population of Orissa was 31,659,736 and the member of elected members of the
legislative assembly was 147. The formula to determine the weight of vote is
Population of the state
--------------------------------------
1000
No. of M.L.A.s in the state
In that case the weight of vote of each
Orissa MLA was
31659736
-------------- + 1000 = 215
147
Since the remainder was 372 it was
neglected. Similarly the weight of the votes of the members of Parliament is
also worked out by a formula by dividing the total number of votes assigned to
all the M.L.A.s of the country by the member of elected members of Parliament.
If the remainder is more than one half one more vote is added and if it is less
than one half than it is ignored.
Total no. votes assigned to all the
M.L.A.s
-------------------------------------------------------
= Weight of votes of each M.P.
Total no. of elected M.P.s
Taking a hypothetical example we may
assume the weight of the votes of all the elected M.L.A.s is 554459 and the
total strength of the elected MPs is 783. In this assumption the weight of
votes of each M.P. is 708. The fraction of 1 in this case has been ignored.
In the election of the President of
India the members of the Electoral College are allowed to exercise their
preferences for the candidates in order of their choice. Each voter is allowed
to exercise as many preferences as candidates are there. The voter indicates
his order of preferences on the ballot paper. A candidate in order to be
elected must secure his quota of votes which is 50% of valid votes +1. If no
candidate secures the quota or the number of votes required to win, subsequent
rounds of counting shall be taken up. The counting will continue till a
candidate gets the quota of votes required to win.
Whenever the presidential office falls
vacant on account of his death, resignation or impeachment the Vice-President
succeeds him for a period of six months. The election of the President must be
conducted within six months from the date of vacancy. In case of resignation,
the President hands over the letter to the Vice-President of India.
=================================================
Qualifications:
Must be a citizen of India
Completed 35 years of age
Eligible to be a member of Lok Sabha
Must not hold any government post.
Exceptions are:
President and Vice-President
Governor of any state
Minister of Union State
Election
Indirectly elected through ‘Electoral
College’ consisting of Elected members of both the Houses of Parliament &
Elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States. (No nominated
members)
Security deposit of Rs 15,000/-
Supreme court inquires all disputes
regarding President’s Election.
Takes OATH in presence of Chief Justice
of India, or in his absence, senior-most Judge of Supreme Court
Terms and Emoluments
5 year term
Article 57 says that there is no upper
limit on the number of times a person can become President
Can give resignation to Vice-President
before full-term
Present Salary- Rs. 1,50,000/month
(including allowances & emoluments)
Impeachment : Quasi-judicial procedure
Can be impeached only on the ground of
violation of constitution
The impeachment procedure can be
initiated in either House of the Parliament
Vacancy
In case of office falls vacant due to
death, resignation or removal, the Vice-President act as President. It he is
not available then Chief Justice, it not then senior-most Judge of the Supreme
court shall act as the President of India
The election is to be held within 6
months of the vacancy
Powers Appoints
PM, Ministers, Chief Justice & judge of Supreme Court & High Court,
Chairman & members of UPSC, Comptroller and Auditor General, Attorney
General, Chief Election Commissioner and other members of Election Commission
of India, Governors, Members of Finance Commission, Ambassadors, etc
Can summon & prorogue the sessions
of the 2 houses & can dissolve Lok Sabha
Appoints Finance Commission (after every
5 years) that recommends distribution of taxes between Union & State
governments
The President can promulgate 3 types of
Emergencies:-
National Emergency (Article 352)
State Emergency (President’s Rule)
(Article 356)
Financial Emergency (Article 360)
He is the Supreme Commander of the
Defence Forces of India
President appoints Chief of Army, Navy
and Air force
Declares wars & concludes peace
subject to the approval of the Parliament
No money bill or demand for grant can be
introduced or moved in Parliament unless it has been recommended by the
President
He has the power to grant pardon,
reprieve or remit of punishment or commute death sentences
Former Presidents
DR.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (b - 1931)
Term of Office: 25 July 2002 TO 25 July
2007
Shri K. R. Narayanan (1920-2005)
Term of Office: 25 July 1997 TO 25 July
2002
Dr
Shankar Dayal Sharma (1918-1999)
Term of Office: 25 July 1992 TO 25 July
1997
Shri
R Venkataraman (1910-2009)
Term of Office: 25 July 1987 TO 25 July
1992
Giani
Zail Singh (1916-1994)
Term of Office: 25 July 1982 TO 25 July
1987
SHRI
NEELAM SANJIVA REDDY (1913-1996)
Term of Office: 25 July 1977 TO 25 July
1982
Dr.
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905-1977)
Term of Office: 24 August 1974 TO 11
February 1977
Shri
Varahagiri Venkata Giri (1894-1980)
Term of Office: 3 May 1969 TO 20 July
1969 and 24 August 1969 TO 24 August 1974
Dr.
Zakir Husain (1897-1969)
Term of Office: 13 May 1967 TO 3 May
1969
Dr.
Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975)
Term of Office: 13 May 1962 TO 13 May
1967
Dr.
Rajendra Prasad (1884-1963)
Term of Office: 26 January 1950 TO 13
May 1962
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