What does Article 61 of the Indian Constitution deal with?

The correct answer is Article 52, which says simply: "There shall be a President of India." It opens Chapter I of Part V, the chapter on the Union executive, and every other rule about the office builds on it.

The other options are the Articles around it, which is why they are chosen to confuse. Article 53 vests the executive power of the Union in the President and makes the President the Supreme Commander of the defence forces; it describes what the office does, not that it exists. Article 74 provides the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister to aid and advise the President. Article 75 deals with the appointment of the Prime Minister and other ministers. A quick way to hold the sequence: 52 creates the office, 53 gives it the executive power, 54 and 55 say how the President is elected, and 74 and 75 bring in the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers.

The correct answer is Nominated Member of Parliament. Under Article 54, the President is elected by an electoral college made up only of elected members: the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States, and, since the 70th Amendment of 1992, of the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry. The 12 members the President nominates to the Rajya Sabha therefore have no vote, and neither do nominated members of the Assemblies or any member of a State Legislative Council.

The three other options, elected members of the Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha and a State Assembly, are exactly the people who do vote. The exception to remember is impeachment: nominated members of Parliament do take part in impeaching the President under Article 61, while elected MLAs, who helped elect the President, have no part in removing him or her. Examiners like to swap these two facts.

The correct answer is 35 years. Article 58 lays down four qualifications for the President: the person must be a citizen of India, must have completed 35 years of age, must be qualified for election as a member of the Lok Sabha, and must not hold any office of profit under the Union, a State or a local authority.

The wrong options are ages that belong to other offices, which is what makes them tempting. Twenty-five is the minimum age for the Lok Sabha and a State Legislative Assembly, and thirty is the minimum for the Rajya Sabha and a State Legislative Council. Thirty-four is simply a distractor. The same age of 35 applies to the Vice-President and to a Governor. A useful set to learn together: Lok Sabha 25, Rajya Sabha 30, President, Vice-President and Governor 35. There is no minimum age at all for a judge of the Supreme Court.

The correct answer is the Chief Justice of India. Under Article 60, the President takes the oath or affirmation before the Chief Justice of India, or, in the Chief Justice's absence, before the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court. In the oath the President promises to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law, and to devote himself or herself to the service and well-being of the people of India. Unlike the oaths of ministers and judges, which are in the Third Schedule, the form of the President's oath is written into Article 60 itself.

The Prime Minister does not administer the President's oath; it is the other way round, since the President administers the oaths of the Prime Minister and the other Union ministers. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha have no role in it either. Keep a small chain in mind: the Chief Justice swears in the President, the President swears in the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, the ministers and the judges of the Supreme Court, and the Chief Justice of a High Court swears in the Governor of the State.

The correct answer is the Vice President. Article 56(1)(a) says the President may resign by writing under his or her hand addressed to the Vice-President. The Vice-President must then communicate the resignation to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha without delay. In the same way, the Vice-President resigns by writing to the President. Article 56 also provides that a President whose five-year term has ended continues in office until the successor takes over, so the office is never left empty merely because a term expires.

The Prime Minister, who heads the government, is appointed by the President and so cannot receive the President's resignation. The Chief Election Commissioner conducts the election of the President but has no role in a resignation, and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha only receives information about it from the Vice-President. Resignation questions come in sets, so learn the pairs together: the President writes to the Vice-President, the Vice-President to the President, the Prime Minister and a Governor to the President, and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to the Deputy Speaker.