President Of India, Appointment, Qualifications, Salary, And Powers

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In the Indian Constitution, the head of the federal executive of India is the President. Thus, all the powers of the Union are vested in the President, according to the Constitution, he exercises his powers either himself or through subordinate office bearers – Article-53(1).

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Table of Contents

Qualifications for the post of President of India | Qualification of the President

The following qualifications are prescribed for the post of President of India-

1- He should be a citizen of India, the first condition is.

2- He should have completed 35 years of age and

3- Possesses the qualification to be elected a member of the Lok Sabha.

Note- No person shall be eligible for the office of President who does not hold any office of profit in any local authority, state, or center. It is clear that the offices of the President, Vice-President, Governor of the States, and Ministers of the Union or the States are not considered offices of profit.

Presidential Selection Process

For the presidency, the business must be approved by 50% of the voters. * Before 1998 this number was 10-10.

The security deposit for the post of President is Rs 15000. If a candidate fails to secure 1/6th of the total valid votes, his security deposit is forfeited.

The President shall not be a member of either House of Parliament or State Legislature. If he is a member of that House before the date of the election, then from the date of the election his seat shall be deemed to be vacant from that House.

According to Article 59, the President cannot hold any other office during his tenure.

According to Article 57, a person can be elected to the office of the President more than once. But there is a limitation in the constitution on how many times one can be elected.

* Twice the President has been elected only till now Dr. Rajendra Prasad. (1952 and 1957) – In the US Constitution, a person can be elected President only twice.

President’s Electoral College – Electoral College of the President

According to Article 54 of the Constitution, the President shall be elected by such ‘Electoral College’ consisting of-

1- All the elected members of both the Houses of Parliament (Lok Sabha – Rajya Sabha) and

2- and the members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States.
The members of the states which have a Legislative Council do not participate in it.

*Note that by the 70th Constitutional Amendment 1992, the elected members of the national capital Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry have also been included in the President’s electoral college.

It is noteworthy that the President’s electoral college does not include nominated members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies and members of the State Legislative Council.

The manner of election of the President. Manner of Election of the President

The President is elected by the ‘Indirect Electoral System’.

The method of election of the President has been given in Article-55.
According to Article 55, the election of the President shall be by a “single transferable system” according to the system of proportional representation, and voting at such election shall be secret.

The following two principles are adopted in the election of the President –

1- Principle of Equivalence and Equivalence – According to this principle, there will be uniformity in the measurement of the equivalence of the representatives of different states and equivalence in the representation of different states and the union. In other words, it can be understood that the same procedure will be adopted for determining the vote value of the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of all the states and the sum of the vote value of the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies, the sum of the vote value of all the elected members of both the Houses of Parliament. will be equal to. It is also called the principle of proportional representation.

According to this principle, the vote value of the members of the Legislative Assembly and the members of the Parliament (such votes which he is entitled to give in the Presidential election) is calculated according to the following procedure –

The value of the vote of the members of the Legislative Assembly –

To know the value of the vote of a member of a Legislative Assembly – The total population of that State is divided by the total number of elected members of the Legislative Assembly of that State. And the obtained quotient is again divided by one thousand. The quotient thus obtained is the vote value of anyone elected member of that particular state. But if after division the remainder is 500 or more, then one is added to the said quotient. This can be represented by the following formula–

Value of vote of a member of the Legislative Assembly of a State

           Total population of the state
=   ————————————————–
        Total number of elected members of the lower house x 1000

To know the vote value of all the elected members of that state, by the number of all elected members, the vote value of an elected member of that state is multiplied by *Population means the fixed population of 1971.

Calculation of vote value determination of members of parliament

To find the value of the vote of any one of the elected members of both the Houses of Parliament, the value of the vote of the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of all the states is added and divided by the number of all the elected members of the Parliament —-

vote value of a member of parliament

Sum of Elected Vote Values of all State Legislative Assemblies

= ————————————————–

Number of elected members of both the houses of parliament

Single Transferable Vote System Principle

According to this principle, if the number of candidates is more than one, then each voter shall give as many votes in the order of preference as there are candidates. That is, each voter gives his vote to each candidate according to the order of preference. For example, if a total of three candidates are contesting for the post of President, then the voter will give his vote to the three candidates according to the order of first, second, and third preference.

Counting of votes

A special provision has been made for counting votes in the presidential election. Only he is declared successful for the presidency who receives more than 50% of the total valid votes plus one vote. This is called the minimum quota.

total valid votes cast

Minimum Quota =——————————– + 1
2

At the time of counting, the first preference votes are counted first. If a candidate secures the minimum quota, he is declared successful. If no candidate secures the minimum quota, then the second round of counting is started. In this the candidate receiving the fewest votes is eliminated from the competition, the second preference votes on his ballot papers are counted and he is added to the first preference votes obtained by the other candidate. If even after the second round of counting, no candidate is able to obtain the minimum quota, then the above process is repeated and continues till the minimum quota is achieved by a candidate.

Example – Suppose there are four candidates in the election for the post of President – A, B, C, and D. The total valid votes obtained are 2500, so the minimum quota is 1251. Let A, B, C, and D get 950, 700, 500, and 350 votes respectively in the first preference.

It is clear that no candidate has got the minimum quota of 1251. Therefore, the second preference votes will be counted in the 350 ballots received by candidate D who gets the most votes, out of the competition.

Let A get 50, B got 100 and C got 200 votes on second preference out of 350 ballots. By adding this to the first preference votes, the total votes of A, B, and C became 1000, 800, and 700 respectively, so still, no one got the minimum quota. Therefore, now the third round of counting will be done, in which the candidate C with the least number of votes will be eliminated from the competition and 700 votes obtained by him will be added to the third preference votes. Now in the calculation of third preference, suppose A got 200 and B got 500 votes, so after the third round of counting, A got 1200 and B got 1300 votes. Thus B got more than the minimum quota of 1251 votes and was successful. Although he got fewer votes than A in the first round and second round count.

Presidential term

According to Article 56, the term of the President will be 5 years. But he can submit his resignation to the Vice President even before 5 years. The Vice President immediately informs the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

Oath by the president

According to Article 60, the President is sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or in his absence by the senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court.

President and his salary allowances

According to Article 59(3), the President gets free accommodation, along with a salary, allowances, and pension. On 11 September 2008, the Indian government increased the President’s salary to ₹1.5 lakh (equivalent to ₹3.6 lakh or US$4,700 in 2020). This amount was further increased to ₹5 lakh (equivalent to ₹5.7 lakh or US$7,500 in 2020) in India’s 2018 Union Budget. Apart from this, lifetime free facilities are available.

Impeachment of the president

Article 61 deals with the process of impeachment of the President. If the President violates the Constitution, an impeachment motion can be brought against him in either House of Parliament. Intimation of this proposal will have to be given to the President 14 days in advance. The motion must be signed by at least one-fourth of the members of the House. The motion is passed by a majority of two-thirds of the members and goes to the other house for further investigation. If the resolution is passed in the second house also, the President will have to step down from his office. This has never happened in India.

Presidential election controversy

According to Article 71, disputes relating to the election of the President and the Vice-President shall be settled by the Supreme Court and its decision shall be final. If the election of any person as President or Vice-President is declared invalid by the Court, then the decisions taken by such person as President or Vice-President shall not be invalid.

President’s Powers

Extensive powers have been given to the President of India in the Constitution. These powers of the President can be divided into two classes–

A – peacetime powers and
B – emergency powers

A – First of all we will discuss the peacetime powers of the President

1-Executive Powers

According to Article 53, the executive power of the Union shall be vested in the President and shall be exercised by him either himself or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with the Constitution. Subordinate officers mean from the Union Cabinet. All the decisions or actions of the government are done in the name of the President.

According to Article 78, the President has the right to receive information on the affairs of the Union.

Officials to be appointed by the president

According to Article 74, the President can constitute a Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister to advise in the exercise of his executive power. Therefore, he appoints other key officers of the Union including the Prime Minister of India.
Union minister
Governors of states
Supreme Court and High Court judges
Attorney General of India
Comptroller and Auditor General of India
Union Public Service President and Member
Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners
Chairman and Member of the National Commission for Minorities
Chairperson and member of the National Commission for Women
Chairman and member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Tribes
Chairman and member of Backward Classes Commission
Governor or Administrator and Chief Minister of Union Territories (Delhi and Puducherry)
Finance Commission and
Official language commission

The President also has the power to remove some key officers of the Union – Union Ministers, Governors of the States, Attorney General of India, etc.

2- Legislative Powers of the President

Since the Parliament is constituted by the President, the Lok Sabha, and the Rajya Sabha (Article 79), the President is an integral part of the federal executive. Therefore, the President has got wide powers.

Announcement of the convening and termination of a session of Parliament. There shall be a gap of not more than 6 months between the last and the next session of Parliament in one session.
According to Article 85, the President can prematurely dissolve the Lok Sabha session or dissolve the Lok Sabha.
The President addresses the joint session of Parliament in every first session (every year). (Article 87)
In case of a Bill in dispute, the President can call a joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament. (Article 108)
According to Article 331, the President can appoint two members of the Anglo-Indian community to the Lok Sabha.
By Article 80, the President nominates 12 members to the Rajya Sabha.
According to Article 111, the President can return any Bill for reconsideration except a Money Bill and a Constitutional Amendment.Certain bills cannot be introduced in the Parliament without the prior permission of the President.
Money Bill Article 110
Formation of a new State or change in the boundary or name of the State Article-3
Bill relating to expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India Article-117
Land Acquisition Bill.
Any bill of the state limiting the freedom of trade – Article 304
Bill relating to taxation which affects the interest of the State – Article 274

Power to issue ordinances

According to Article 123, the President has the power to issue ordinances. This is done when the Parliament is not in session and there is an urgent need for a bill. Such an ordinance automatically lapses in 6 weeks when Parliament is re-promulgated if it is not passed by the Parliament.

3- Judicial powers of the President

Under Article 72, the President has the power to pardon. That is, he can change the sentence of death or reduce the sentence or make it completely free.
According to Article 143, the President can consult the Supreme Court on any matter of law.
The President appoints the judges of the Supreme Court under Article 124 and the High Court under Article 217.
4- Financial Powers of the President – The President places the statement of income and expenditure (budget) before the Parliament every year. Article 112. Money Bills, Finance Bills, and Demands for Grants cannot be introduced in the Lok Sabha without the permission of the President.
The President has authority over the Consolidated Fund of India.
Under Article 280, the President constitutes the Finance Commission.

5- Military Powers of the President

The President of India is the commander in chief of all three forces (Army, Air, and Navy). Article 53(2).

6- Diplomatic powers of the President

As the head of the federal executive, the President represents India in the overseas field. He appoints ambassadors and diplomats to embassies abroad. Treaties and agreements with foreign countries are also done in the name of the President.

7- Other powers of the President

Allocation of ministers
Appointment of Chairman members of various commissions
In case of a dispute regarding the eligibility of a Member of Parliament, seeks an opinion from the Election Commission. Article 103

B – Emergency powers of the President

1-National Emergency –

Under Article 352- National Emergency is declared in the event of a crisis arising out of war, external aggression, or armed rebellion. The emergency is declared for 6 months with the permission of the Parliament. Permission will have to be taken again for its re-run or extension. A national emergency has been declared thrice so far – 1962 – Indo-China war, 1971 – India – Pakistan war, and 1975 due to internal unrest (by Indira Gandhi).

2-President’s rule in the states – Article 356

Due to the poor law and order situation in a state, the President can, with the permission of the Parliament, on the advice of the Governor, dismiss the government in the state and impose President’s rule in the state.