The President and Vice-President
President and Vice-President for UPSC — electoral college, qualifications, impeachment and removal, veto, ordinance and pardoning powers, with Articles 52–72.
SyllabusGS II · Structure, organisation and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary
Prerequisites: The Union Executive — overview · Preamble and Salient Features
The Hook: A Republic Elects Its Head
On 25 July 2022, Droupadi Murmu was sworn in as the 15th President of India — the first person from a Scheduled Tribe to hold the office. She was not elected by the people directly, but by an electoral college of elected MPs and elected MLAs, voting by secret ballot under a system of proportional representation.
Why does a “republic” choose its head indirectly? And if the President must act on ministerial advice, what real power does the office hold? This page answers both.
The Core Concept
The President is the head of the Indian State and the first citizen, but not the head of government. Executive power is vested in the President (Article 53), yet it is exercised on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers (Article 74). The Vice-President is the second-highest office and presides over the Rajya Sabha.
Election of the President (Articles 54–55)
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Electoral college | Elected members of both Houses of Parliament + elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States + elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of Delhi and Puducherry (added by the 70th Amendment, 1992) |
| Who is excluded | Nominated members of Parliament and of State Assemblies; members of State Legislative Councils |
| System | Proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote; secret ballot |
| Value of an MLA’s vote | Population of the State ÷ (number of elected MLAs × 1,000) — the 1971 Census population is used until the first census after 2026 |
| Value of an MP’s vote | Total value of all MLAs’ votes ÷ total number of elected MPs |
| Winning quota | More than half of the valid votes (first-preference votes counted, then transfers) |
| Disputes | Decided only by the Supreme Court (Article 71) |
The election cannot be challenged on the ground that the electoral college was incomplete because of vacancies.
Qualifications, oath, term (Articles 56–60)
- Qualifications (Article 58): citizen of India; completed 35 years; qualified for election as a member of the Lok Sabha; holds no office of profit (the offices of President, Vice-President, Governor and Union or State minister are not offices of profit for this purpose).
- Nomination (under the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952): at least 50 electors as proposers and 50 as seconders, with a security deposit.
- Oath (Article 60): administered by the Chief Justice of India (or, in absence, the senior-most Supreme Court judge) — to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law”.
- Term (Article 56): five years; resignation is addressed to the Vice-President. Eligible for re-election any number of times (Article 57).
Impeachment (Article 61)
The only ground is “violation of the Constitution” — a term the Constitution does not define.
graph TD
A[Charges framed in EITHER House] --> B[Signed by at least one-fourth of the House's members]
B --> C[14 days' notice to the President]
C --> D[Resolution passed by two-thirds of the TOTAL membership of that House]
D --> E[Other House investigates; President may appear or be represented]
E --> F[Other House sustains charges by two-thirds of its TOTAL membership]
F --> G[President stands removed from the date of the resolution]Who takes part: nominated members of Parliament can vote in impeachment (though they cannot vote in the election); elected MLAs cannot (though they vote in the election). No President has been impeached so far.
Vacancy (Articles 62 and 65)
- On expiry of term: election must be completed before the term ends; the outgoing President continues until the successor takes charge.
- On death, resignation or removal: election within six months; the new President gets a full five-year term.
- Meanwhile the Vice-President acts as President; if that office is also vacant, the Chief Justice of India, and then the senior-most Supreme Court judge, discharges the functions (President (Discharge of Functions) Act, 1969).
Powers of the President
| Category | Key powers |
|---|---|
| Executive | All executive action in the President’s name (Art 77); appoints the PM, ministers, Attorney General, CAG, Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, UPSC chairman and members, Governors, Finance Commission |
| Legislative | Summons and prorogues Parliament; dissolves the Lok Sabha; addresses Parliament at the first session after each general election and of each year (Art 87); nominates 12 members to the Rajya Sabha (Art 80); prior recommendation for certain Bills (money Bills, new States); assent to Bills (Art 111); ordinances (Art 123) |
| Financial | Annual Financial Statement laid in the President’s name; no demand for grant without recommendation; Contingency Fund of India at the President’s disposal; constitutes a Finance Commission every five years |
| Judicial | Pardons (Art 72); appoints judges; may seek the Supreme Court’s opinion (Art 143) |
| Diplomatic and military | Treaties negotiated in the President’s name; supreme commander of the defence forces |
| Emergency | National (Art 352), President’s Rule (Art 356), Financial (Art 360) |
Veto power (Article 111)
| Type | What it means | Available for |
|---|---|---|
| Absolute veto | Withhold assent; the Bill ends | Private members’ Bills; government Bills when the cabinet resigns or advises so |
| Suspensive veto | Return the Bill for reconsideration; if passed again (with or without amendments), the President must assent | Ordinary Bills — not money Bills |
| Pocket veto | Take no action — the Constitution sets no time limit | Ordinary Bills (used by President Zail Singh on the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill, 1986) |
| Qualified veto | Override by a higher majority (US model) | Not available in India |
- Money Bills: assent or withhold — cannot be returned.
- Constitution Amendment Bills: must assent (24th Amendment, 1971).
Ordinance-making power (Article 123)
- Only when both Houses are not in session (or either House is not in session); the President must be satisfied that circumstances require immediate action.
- An ordinance has the same force as an Act, but it can cover only subjects on which Parliament can legislate, and cannot amend the Constitution.
- It must be laid before both Houses on reassembly and ceases six weeks after reassembly (if not approved earlier). Maximum life without approval: six months and six weeks.
- The 38th Amendment (1975) made the President’s satisfaction final; the 44th Amendment (1978) removed that bar. Courts may review it for mala fides.
- D.C. Wadhwa (1987) and Krishna Kumar Singh (2017): repeated re-promulgation without placing ordinances before the legislature is a fraud on the Constitution.
Pardoning power — President (Article 72) vs Governor (Article 161)
| Point | President | Governor |
|---|---|---|
| Offences covered | Against Union laws | Against State laws |
| Court-martial | Can pardon | Cannot |
| Death sentence | Can pardon, commute, remit, respite, reprieve | Can commute, remit, respite or reprieve, but cannot pardon |
| Forms | Pardon, commutation, remission, respite, reprieve | Same, subject to the above |
Exercised on ministerial advice (Maru Ram, 1980); no right to an oral hearing (Kehar Singh, 1989); limited judicial review for mala fides or irrelevant considerations (Epuru Sudhakar, 2006); unexplained delay in deciding mercy petitions can justify commutation (Shatrughan Chauhan, 2014).
Discretion — constitutional position
- Article 74(1): the President “shall act in accordance with” the advice of the Council of Ministers (made binding by the 42nd Amendment, 1976); the 44th Amendment (1978) allows the President to send advice back once for reconsideration.
- Article 74(2): courts cannot inquire into what advice was tendered.
- Situational discretion: choosing a Prime Minister when no party has a clear majority, or when a PM dies with no obvious successor; dismissing a Council of Ministers that cannot prove its majority; deciding whether to dissolve the Lok Sabha when a ministry has lost its majority.
The Vice-President (Articles 63–71)
| Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| Role | Ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Art 64); acts as President during a vacancy for up to six months (Art 65) |
| Electoral college | All members of both Houses of Parliament — elected and nominated; State MLAs do not take part (Art 66) |
| System | Proportional representation by single transferable vote; secret ballot |
| Qualifications | Citizen; 35 years; qualified for election to the Rajya Sabha |
| Oath | Before the President (Art 69) |
| Term | Five years; resignation to the President |
| Removal (Art 67(b)) | Resolution of the Rajya Sabha passed by a majority of all its then members (effective majority), agreed to by the Lok Sabha (simple majority); 14 days’ notice; no grounds specified |
| When acting as President | Does not preside over the Rajya Sabha; draws the President’s emoluments |
Memory Anchors
Who elects whom:
| Office | Electors | Mnemonic |
|---|---|---|
| President | Elected MPs + elected MLAs (incl. Delhi, Puducherry) | “Elected Everyone” |
| Vice-President | All MPs (elected + nominated), no MLAs | “Parliament Only” |
Five forms of mercy: “Please Come Right Round Row” → Pardon · Commutation · Remission · Respite · Reprieve
Oath ladder: President ← CJI; Vice-President ← President; Governor ← Chief Justice of the High Court.
One-line Mains hook: Dr Ambedkar described the President as occupying the same position as the King under the English Constitution — a head of the State, but not of the executive.
For Prelims
- Nominated MPs do not vote in the President’s election but do take part in impeachment.
- Delhi and Puducherry MLAs vote in the presidential election (70th Amendment, 1992).
- Impeachment ground: violation of the Constitution; two-thirds of the total membership of each House.
- Vice-President: elected by all MPs; removed by an effective majority of the Rajya Sabha agreed to by the Lok Sabha.
- President’s resignation goes to the Vice-President; Vice-President’s to the President.
- No pocket-veto time limit for the President; no qualified veto in India.
- Governor cannot pardon a death sentence or a court-martial sentence.
- Nuance: in State of Haryana v. Raj Kumar (2021) the Supreme Court held that the Governor’s Article 161 power is not limited by the 14-year minimum in Section 433A CrPC. Prelims questions still follow the textual distinction between Articles 72 and 161 given above.
For Mains
- Dimensions: nominal vs real executive; the President as constitutional guardian; scope of discretion in hung Parliaments; ordinance raj and its checks; mercy petitions and delay; Presidential references under Article 143.
- Keywords: constitutional head, aid and advice, situational discretion, suspensive veto, pocket veto, fraud on the Constitution, colourable exercise of power.
- Value-addition: Shamsher Singh (1974) on aid and advice; Krishna Kumar Singh (2017) on ordinances; Epuru Sudhakar (2006) on pardon; the 44th Amendment’s “send back once” proviso.
Common Traps
In the News
- July 2022 — Droupadi Murmu sworn in as the 15th President of India.
- May 2025 — the President referred questions on timelines for gubernatorial and presidential assent to Bills to the Supreme Court under Article 143.
- July–September 2025 — the Vice-President resigned mid-term in July 2025; an election under Article 68(2) was held in September 2025, and the newly elected Vice-President, C.P. Radhakrishnan, began a full five-year term.
Practice
Prelims
Consider the following statements regarding the election of the President of India:
- Elected members of the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi are part of the electoral college.
- Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha are part of the electoral college.
- Disputes regarding the election are decided by the Supreme Court.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Solution
Statement 1 is correct — added by the 70th Amendment (1992), along with Puducherry. Statement 2 is incorrect — nominated members of either House are excluded. Statement 3 is correct — Article 71 vests jurisdiction in the Supreme Court.
Answer: C
The President of India cannot return which of the following Bills to Parliament for reconsideration?
Solution
A Money Bill is introduced on the President’s recommendation; under the proviso to Article 111, it cannot be returned. Private members’ Bills, Bills passed at a joint sitting and Bills under Article 3 are ordinary Bills that may be returned once.
Answer: A
How many of the following statements about the Vice-President of India are correct?
- The electoral college includes nominated members of Parliament.
- Members of State Legislative Assemblies vote in the election.
- A resolution for removal can be initiated only in the Rajya Sabha.
- The oath of office is administered by the Chief Justice of India.
Solution
Statement 1 is correct — all MPs, elected and nominated, form the electoral college. Statement 2 is incorrect — MLAs have no role. Statement 3 is correct — under Article 67(b), the removal resolution is passed by the Rajya Sabha and agreed to by the Lok Sabha. Statement 4 is incorrect — the President administers the oath (Article 69). So two.
Answer: B
Mains
“The President of India is a constitutional head, yet not a mere rubber stamp.” Discuss.
Solution
Introduction: Article 53 vests executive power in the President, but Article 74 binds the President to the advice of the Council of Ministers. The office is modelled on the British Crown — head of State, not of government.
Body:
- Constitutional head: binding advice (42nd Amendment); Article 74(2) bars judicial inquiry into advice; Shamsher Singh (1974).
- Not a rubber stamp:
- Send advice back once for reconsideration (44th Amendment).
- Suspensive and pocket veto over ordinary Bills.
- Situational discretion — appointing a PM in a hung House, dismissing a ministry that has lost confidence, dissolution.
- The right to be informed (Article 78) and to advise, warn and encourage.
- Seeking the Supreme Court’s opinion under Article 143.
- Limits: discretion must be exercised within conventions; misuse would provoke constitutional crisis.
Conclusion: The President is a moral and constitutional guardian whose influence lies in persuasion and in acting decisively only when the parliamentary system cannot.
Quick Revision
| Point | One-liner |
|---|---|
| Electoral college (P) | Elected MPs + elected MLAs (incl. Delhi, Puducherry) |
| Electoral college (VP) | All MPs |
| Qualifications | 35 years; qualified for Lok Sabha (P) / Rajya Sabha (VP) |
| Oath | P by CJI; VP by President |
| Impeachment | Violation of Constitution; 1/4 to initiate; 2/3 of total membership in each House |
| VP removal | Rajya Sabha effective majority + Lok Sabha agreement |
| Veto | Absolute, suspensive, pocket — no qualified veto |
| Ordinance | Art 123; max six months six weeks; reviewable |
| Pardon | Art 72 (wider) vs Art 161 (no death-sentence pardon, no court-martial) |
Key Takeaways
- The President is indirectly elected by elected MPs and MLAs; the Vice-President by all MPs.
- Executive power is formally the President’s but exercised on binding ministerial advice, with a one-time power to send it back.
- Veto, ordinance and pardon are the most tested powers — learn their limits precisely.
Related Topics
- Prime Minister and Council of Ministers
- The Union Executive — quick revision
- Law-Making in Parliament
- The Governor and the State Executive
- Elections and the Representation of People Act