Presidents and Vice-Presidents of India: Complete List

The President of India is the head of State and the first citizen of the republic; the Vice-President holds the second highest constitutional office and is the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Examiners like the two offices because a single line can test three things at once: the order in which the holders came, the article that governs the office, and the record attached to a name. This note gives both lists in full, the articles behind them, the acting Presidents in between, and the firsts a paper setter keeps returning to.

The two offices in the Constitution

Articles 52 to 62 of Part V deal with the President and Articles 63 to 71 with the Vice-President. Article 52 creates the office of President, Article 53 vests the executive power of the Union in him, and Article 54 lays down the electoral college: the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States, with Delhi and Puducherry added by the Seventieth Amendment. Nominated members do not vote. Article 55 prescribes the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote with voting by secret ballot. Article 56 fixes the term at five years, Article 57 allows re-election, Article 58 lays down the qualifications, Article 60 requires the oath to be taken before the Chief Justice of India, and Article 61 provides for impeachment for violation of the Constitution by a two-thirds special majority of the total membership of each House. Article 63 creates the office of Vice-President, Article 64 makes him ex-officio Chairman of the Council of States, Article 65 lets him act as President in a vacancy, and Article 66 gives him an electoral college of the members of both Houses, nominated members included.

Presidents of India: the full list

The acting Presidents

Three men have acted as President, and each time the reason is worth remembering. Shri V. V. Giri acted from May to July 1969 as Vice-President after the death of Dr. Zakir Husain, then resigned to contest the election. Justice M. Hidayatullah, the sitting Chief Justice of India, acted from July to August 1969 because the office of Vice-President had fallen vacant with Giri resignation. Shri B. D. Jatti acted from February to July 1977 as Vice-President after the death of Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. The Constitution has no Vice-President sworn in as President by succession: Article 65 only lets him discharge the functions until a new President is elected, and Article 62 requires that election within six months.

Vice-Presidents of India: the full list

Firsts and records worth memorising

• Dr. Rajendra Prasad is the only President to have been elected twice and to have completed two full terms.
• Dr. Zakir Husain had the shortest tenure of any President and was the first to die in office; Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was the second.
• Shri Neelam Sanjiva Reddy is the only President elected unopposed, and the only one who had earlier been Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
• Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Dr. Zakir Husain, Shri V. V. Giri, Shri R. Venkataraman, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma and Shri K. R. Narayanan moved from the Vice-Presidency to the Presidency.
• Shri M. Hamid Ansari is the only Vice-President after Dr. S. Radhakrishnan to complete two full terms, and Shri Krishan Kant is the only Vice-President to die in office.
• Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and Dr. Rajendra Prasad received the Bharat Ratna; Kalam received it in 1997, before he became President.

How examiners mix the two lists

The commonest trap is a name that belongs to both lists: a question that asks for the third President and offers Shri V. V. Giri alongside Dr. Zakir Husain is counting on a student who remembers Giri only as an acting President. The second trap is the order of succession after a death in office, where the Vice-President is said to become President instead of merely discharging the functions. The third is the electoral college, where the Presidential college leaves out nominated members and includes two Union Territories, while the Vice-Presidential college includes nominated members and no Assemblies at all.