The President and Vice

President of India
The President
 The president of India, is the ceremonial head of state of India and the commander-in-chief of the Indian
Armed Forces
 He is the highest ranking official by order of precedence in India.
 Although the president holds such a ranking position in office, the common man may feel that the president
exercises no power. This is not true as, although not a necessity, the powers of the president are exercised
through the Prime Minister or any other of the subordinates.
 After the drafting of the constitution by the drafting committee of India led by Dr.BR Ambedkar in 1950, the
offices of the monarch and governor-general were replaced by the President of India, with Rajendra Prasad as
its first incumbent.
 In this presentation we will further see the way the President is elected in India and what powers they hold.
  The president is indirectly elected by an electoral college
comprising the Parliament of India (both houses) and the
legislative assemblies of each of India's states and territories,
How is the who themselves are all directly elected.
President  The election process for the President is a much more
extensive process compared to the Prime Minister of India,
elected? who is also indirectly elected.
 A secret ballot procedure is conducted by the members of
the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state legislative assemblies.
 The reason for this extensive process can be credited to the
powers and duties to be upheld by the President of India,
which we will see next.
  By Article 58 of the Constitution of India, the principal
conditions for a person to be elected as the President are
that the Candidate must be,
Who is eligible ◦ A citizen of India.
to become the ◦ Must be of 35 years or above.
◦ Should be qualified to become a member of Lok Sabha.
President?  Although certain office holders are permitted to stand as
presidential candidates, them being,
◦ The current Vice President
◦ The Governor of any state
◦ A Minister of the Union or of any state, which includes the Prime
Minister.
  The president of India, being a very powerful person, has an extensive
amount of power at his discretion. We can summarise the most
important powers that the president holds,
What powers  Legislative powers :-
◦ The President addresses the Sessions of the Parliament. The President
does the has the power to address either House of Parliament at any time. He

President hold? can send messages to either House of the Parliament.. He can dissolve
the Lok Sabha and order fresh elections. He nominates 12 members to
the Rajya Sabha. No Bill can become a law without the assent and the
signature of the President. Under Article 123, the President can
promulgate an Ordinance.
 Executive powers :-
◦ Head of the Union Administration: All executive orders are issued in
the name of the President.
◦ Appointments of officials of the State: The President makes
appointments to the key posts to run the government's
administration. He appoints the Prime Minister and the Council of
Ministers, the Chief Justice and the Judges of Supreme Court and the
High Courts, the Governors of the States, Attorney General of India,
Comptroller and Auditor General, Chairman and members of the
UPSC, Chairman and members of the Planning Commission.
  Judicial powers :-
◦ The President is not answerable to any court of law for the exercise of his
powers. He can pardon or remit or suspend a sentence of punishment given
What powers by the court martial or a sentence of death passed by a court.
 Financial powers :-
does the ◦ No money bill can be introduced in the Parliament without the assent of the

President hold?
President. The ''Annual'' Budget of the Central Government is presented
before the Lok Sabha by the Union Finance Minister only with the permission
of the President. The Contingency Fund of India is at the disposal of the
President. He can make advances out of it to meet unforeseen expenditure
before the same is approved by the Parliament.
 Diplomatic powers :-
◦ India is represented on International forum by the President of India. He
sends and receives ambassadors. All international treaties and agreements
are concluded on behalf of the President subject to ratification by the
parliament.
 Military powers :-
◦ Article 53 vests the supreme command of the Armed Forces of
India in the President. President of India can declare war or
conclude peace, under the regulation by the parliament.
 The president can also declare a state of emergency.
  Since most of the powers and decisions taken by he president are
What have usually exercised through the subordinates, the actions of the
president go unnoticed. However, there have been some cases
previous were the president has intervened and used the given powers
directly,
presidents  Proving majority in the parliament
done? ◦ In 1979, Prime Minister Charan Singh, did not enjoy a parliamentary
majority. He responded to this by simply not advising the president to
summon parliment. Since then, presidents have been more diligent in
directing incoming Prime Ministers to convene parliament and prove
their majority within reasonable deadlines (2 to 3 weeks). In the interim
period, the Prime Ministers are generally restrained from making policy
decisions
 Vetoing of a Bill
◦ Since the Indian constitution does not provide any time limit within
which the president is to declare his assent or refusal, the president
could exercise a "pocket veto" by not taking any action for an indefinite
time. The veto was used in 1986 by President Zail Singh over the Postal
Bill. The president did not give assent to the bill, arguing that its scope
was too sweeping and would give the government arbitrary powers to
intercept postal communications indiscriminately.[
  Sacking state governors
What have ◦ Arunachal Pradesh governor who was earlier appointed by the
ruling party at the centre, has been sacked by the president after
previous the supreme court has quashed his unconstitutional acts.

presidents  Return of a Bill

done? ◦ The constitution gives the president the power to return a bill
unsigned but it circumscribes the power to send it back only once
for reconsideration. If the parliament sends back the bill with or
without changes, the president is obliged to sign it. In mid-2006,
President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam sent back a controversial bill
regarding the exclusion of certain offices from the scope of
'offices of profit', the holding of which would disqualify a person
from being a member of parliament.The combined opposition,
the NDA, hailed the move. The UPA chose to send the bill back to
the president without any changes and, after 17 days, Kalam gave
his assent on 18 August 2006.
  The Vice President of India is the second-highest
constitutional office in India after the President.
 The Vice President acts as President in the absence of the
president due to death, resignation, impeachment, or other
The Vice situations.
President  The Vice President of India also acts as the Honourable
Chancellor of Panjab University, Chandigarh
 Venkaiah Naidu is the current Vice President of India. He
defeated UPA's candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi on 5 August
2017 election.
  The Vice President is elected indirectly, by an electoral college
consisting of members of both houses of the Parliament.

How is the Vice  The election of the Vice President is slightly different from the
election of the President as the members of state legislatures are
President not part of the electoral college but the nominated members of
both the houses are part of electoral college for the vice presidential
elected? election.
 Any person qualified to be elected and intending to stand for
election is required to be nominated by at least twenty members of
parliament as proposers, and at least twenty other members of
parliament as seconders. The nomination papers are scrutinized by
the Returning Officer, and the names of all eligible candidates are
added to the ballot.
 The election is proportional representation by means of a single
transferable vote by secret ballot. Voters stack-rank the candidates,
assigning 1 to their first preference, 2 to their second preference,
and so on. The number of votes required by a candidate to secure
the election is calculated by dividing the total number of valid cast
votes by two, and adding one to the quotient by disregarding any
remainder.
  As in the case of the President, in order to be qualified to be
elected as Vice President, a person must :-
◦ Be a citizen of India
Who is elegible ◦ Have completed more than 35 years of age
to become the ◦ Not hold any office of profit

Vice President?  While in order to be a President, a person must be qualified

for election as a member of the Lok Sabha, the Vice
President must be qualified for election as a member of the
Rajya Sabha.
 This difference is because the Vice President is to act as the
ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
  The main existence of a vice president is to act as President
in the absence of the president due to death, resignation,
impeachment, or other situations.
What powers  The Vice President of India is also ex officio Chairperson of
does the Vice the Rajya Sabha. When a bill is introduced in Rajya Sabha,
the vice president decides whether it is a financial bill or not.
President hold? If he is of the opinion, a bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha is
a money bill, he would refer the case to the Speaker of the
Lok Sabha for deciding it.