President and Vice-President of India: Notes, Articles and PYQs

The President is India's head of State and first citizen. Every law, every ordinance and every appointment of a Chief Justice carries the President's name, yet the President almost always acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers. That mix of great formal power and limited real power is exactly what exams test, along with a long list of Article numbers. The Vice-President, who chairs the Rajya Sabha, comes with a shorter list of rules that are easy to confuse with the President's. This note covers both.

The President: Articles at a glance

How the President is elected

The President is elected indirectly, by an electoral college (Article 54) made up of:

• the elected members of both Houses of Parliament, and
• the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States and of the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry (added by the 70th Amendment, 1992).

The election follows the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, and voting is by secret ballot (Article 55). Each vote carries a value: an MLA's vote is weighted by the population of the State, and the total value of all MPs' votes equals the total value of all MLAs' votes. A candidate needs 50 proposers and 50 seconders. Disputes about the election are decided only by the Supreme Court (Article 71).

Qualifications, term and oath

• Qualifications (Article 58): a citizen of India, at least 35 years old, qualified to be elected to the Lok Sabha, and not holding an office of profit.
• Term (Article 56): five years from the date of entering office. The President can resign by writing to the Vice-President, and is eligible for re-election (Article 57). Dr Rajendra Prasad is the only President to have served two terms.
• Oath (Article 60): administered by the Chief Justice of India, or in the CJI's absence by the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court.
• Salary: fixed by Parliament, now ₹5 lakh a month, and it cannot be reduced during the term.

Impeachment (Article 61)

The only ground is "violation of the Constitution". The process:

1. Charges can begin in either House, in a resolution signed by at least one-fourth of its members, after 14 days' notice.
2. That House must pass it by a majority of two-thirds of its total membership.
3. The other House investigates the charges, and if it too passes the resolution by two-thirds of its total membership, the President is removed.

No President of India has ever been impeached.

When the office falls vacant

An election must be held within six months of a vacancy (Article 62). Until then the Vice-President acts as President (Article 65). If the Vice-President is also unavailable, the Chief Justice of India acts. This happened in 1969, when Chief Justice M. Hidayatullah acted as President after President Zakir Husain died and Vice-President V.V. Giri resigned to contest the election.

The powers of the President

Veto powers

The President has no qualified veto, and since the 24th Amendment (1971) must give assent to a constitutional amendment bill.

Pardoning power (Article 72)

The President can grant a pardon (removing both sentence and conviction), commutation (a lighter form of punishment), remission (a shorter sentence), respite (a lesser sentence because of a special fact such as pregnancy) or reprieve (a temporary stay, especially of a death sentence). The power covers sentences by a court martial, offences against Union laws and all death sentences. A Governor's pardoning power (Article 161) does not extend to court-martial sentences.

Ordinances (Article 123)

When either House of Parliament is not in session, the President can issue an ordinance with the force of a law. It must be approved by Parliament within six weeks of its reassembly, or it lapses; so an ordinance can last at most six months and six weeks. It cannot amend the Constitution, and courts can review it: in the D.C. Wadhwa case (1987) the Supreme Court held that re-issuing ordinances again and again is a fraud on the Constitution.

A constitutional head

Under Article 74, a Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister aids and advises the President. The 42nd Amendment (1976) made that advice binding. The 44th Amendment (1978) let the President send it back once for reconsideration, but the President must act on the advice given after reconsideration. The President therefore reigns but does not rule, much like the British monarch. Real discretion arises only in rare situations, such as choosing a Prime Minister when no party has a majority in the Lok Sabha.

Presidents: firsts to remember

The Vice-President

The Vice-President holds the second-highest office in the country. Its rules look like the President's but differ in the details that exams test:

• Article 63: there shall be a Vice-President of India.
• Article 64: the Vice-President is the ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, but not a member of it, and has only a casting vote in case of a tie.
• Article 65: acts as President when the office falls vacant, for at most six months, and does not chair the Rajya Sabha meanwhile.
• Article 66: elected by an electoral college of all members of both Houses of Parliament, elected and nominated, by proportional representation through the single transferable vote. State Assemblies have no role.
• Qualifications: a citizen, at least 35 years old, and qualified to be elected to the Rajya Sabha.
• Term and removal (Article 67): five years. The Vice-President can be removed by a resolution of the Rajya Sabha passed by a majority of all its then members and agreed to by the Lok Sabha, after 14 days' notice. No ground is prescribed and no impeachment is needed.
• Oath (Article 69): administered by the President.

Dr S. Radhakrishnan was the first Vice-President (1952–62) and, like M. Hamid Ansari, served two terms. C.P. Radhakrishnan became Vice-President in September 2025.

Revise in one minute

• Article 52: President; 53: executive power; 54: electoral college; 58: minimum age 35; 60: oath by the CJI; 61: impeachment; 72: pardon; 123: ordinances; 143: Supreme Court's advice.
• Electors: elected MPs and MLAs, including Delhi and Puducherry. Not nominated members, not Legislative Councils.
• Impeachment only for "violation of the Constitution", by two-thirds of the total membership of each House.
• Resignation to the Vice-President; vacancy filled within six months; the CJI acts if both offices are vacant.
• Pocket veto: Zail Singh, 1986. Ordinance lapses six weeks after Parliament reassembles.
• Vice-President: ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Article 64), elected by all MPs (Article 66), removed by a Rajya Sabha resolution (Article 67), oath by the President.