High-yield questions compare the two electoral colleges, vote value, qualifications, resignation, oath, vacancy, removal, assent, ordinance and pardoning power. Memorise the Article sequence, but solve statements through four tests:
2. Article map
Articles
Subject
Memory cue
52–53
President; Union executive power and supreme command of Defence Forces.
Office + executive vesting
54–55
Electoral college, vote value, proportional representation by single transferable vote and secret ballot.
President's election
56–62
Term, re-election, qualifications, conditions, oath, impeachment and vacancy.
President's tenure
63–65
Vice-President, Rajya Sabha chairmanship and acting/discharging President's functions.
Two roles
66–69
Vice-President's election, qualification, term, removal, vacancy and oath.
Vice-President's tenure
70–71
Other contingencies; election disputes decided finally by Supreme Court.
Article 53 vests the Union's executive power in the President, to be exercised in accordance with the Constitution. Article 74 requires a Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister to aid and advise the President. The President may ask the Council to reconsider advice once, but must act according to the advice tendered after reconsideration. Therefore, a power expressed in the President's name is not normally a personal presidential government.
All executive action of the Government of India is expressed to be taken in the President's name under Article 77. The Prime Minister must communicate Council decisions and furnish information under Article 78. This preserves a constitutional right to be informed and to advise or warn, without converting India into a presidential system.
4. Election of the President: Articles 54–55
Included
Excluded
Elected members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
Nominated members of either House of Parliament
Elected members of State Legislative Assemblies
Members—elected or nominated—of State Legislative Councils
Elected Assembly members of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry
Nominated members of Legislative Assemblies
5. Vote value: why every ballot is not numerically equal
Elector
Formula/rule
Purpose
Elected MLA
State population ÷ elected Assembly members; count the multiples of 1,000 in the quotient. If the remaining part is at least 500, add one.
Uniformity among States while reflecting population.
Elected MP
Total value assigned to elected MLAs of all States ÷ total elected members of both Houses; fraction exceeding one-half counts as one, other fractions are ignored.
Parity between the States as a whole and the Union.
6. Presidential qualifications, nomination and conditions
Under Article 58, a candidate must be an Indian citizen, have completed 35 years, be qualified for election to the Lok Sabha and not hold a disqualifying office of profit under the Union, a State, or a controlled local/other authority. Being President, Vice-President, Governor or a Union/State Minister is not by itself treated as holding an office of profit for this rule.
Under the election law and ECI procedure, a valid presidential nomination requires at least 50 electors as proposers and 50 other electors as seconders, with a security deposit of ₹15,000. These numbers are statutory election facts, not constitutional qualifications in Article 58.
On entering office, the President cannot remain a member of Parliament or a State Legislature; the seat is deemed vacated. The President may not hold another office of profit. Emoluments and allowances cannot be diminished during the term.
7. Term, oath, resignation and vacancy
Point
Rule
Term
Five years from entering office; continues until successor enters office.
Re-election
Article 57 permits re-election; the Constitution states no two-term limit.
Resignation
Written to the Vice-President, who communicates it to the Lok Sabha Speaker.
Oath
Before the Chief Justice of India, or in the CJI's absence the senior-most available Supreme Court judge; preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and law and serve the people's well-being.
Normal vacancy
Election completed before expiry of the incumbent's term.
Casual vacancy
Election as soon as possible and no later than six months; the person elected receives a full five-year term, not the predecessor's remainder.
8. Impeachment of the President: Article 61
9. Powers of the President
Class
Important powers
Limits/anchors
Executive and appointments
Appoints the Prime Minister and, on the Prime Minister's advice, other Ministers; constitutional appointments include Governors, Attorney-General, CAG, judges and other authorities as their Articles provide.
Articles 53, 74–78 and office-specific Articles; usually exercised on aid and advice.
Legislative
Part of Parliament; summons/prorogues Houses, dissolves Lok Sabha, addresses Parliament, nominates 12 Rajya Sabha members, acts on Bills and may promulgate Ordinances.
Articles 79, 80, 85–87, 111 and 123.
Financial
Causes annual financial statement to be laid; a demand for grant needs recommendation; specified financial Bills require recommendation; constitutes Finance Commission.
Articles 112–117 and 280.
Judicial/clemency
Pardon, reprieve, respite, remission, suspension or commutation in Article 72 cases.
Court martial; Union executive field; every death sentence.
Military and diplomatic
Supreme command of Defence Forces is vested in the President; formal diplomatic functions are exercised in the constitutional executive framework.
Article 53(2): exercise of supreme command is regulated by law.
Emergency
Issues proclamations under Articles 352, 356 and 360 when their conditions are fulfilled.
Detailed parliamentary and constitutional safeguards apply; covered in Topic 7.
10. Assent to Bills: Article 111
Bill
Constitutional position
Ordinary Bill
Assent, withhold assent, or return once with a reconsideration message. If both Houses pass it again, with or without amendment, the President cannot withhold assent.
Money Bill
May assent or withhold assent, but cannot return it under the Article 111 proviso.
Constitution Amendment Bill duly passed under Article 368
The President shall give assent; the ordinary return/withhold choices do not apply.
11. Ordinance power: Article 123
Point
Rule
When available?
Except when both Houses are in session, if circumstances require immediate action. Thus one or both Houses must not be in session.
Effect
Same force and effect as an Act of Parliament, but subject to constitutional limits.
Legislative competence
Any provision Parliament could not constitutionally enact is void to that extent.
Parliamentary control
Must be laid before both Houses; ceases six weeks from reassembly unless ended earlier by both Houses' disapproval.
Different reassembly dates
Six weeks are counted from the later date.
Withdrawal
The President may withdraw it at any time, acting within the parliamentary executive framework.
12. Clemency power: Article 72
The President may grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions, or suspend, remit or commute a sentence in three categories: (1) court-martial punishment or sentence; (2) an offence against a law relating to a matter within Union executive power; and (3) every case of a death sentence. A pardon removes both sentence and disqualification flowing from conviction; commutation substitutes a lighter form of punishment; remission reduces the period without changing its character; respite gives a lesser sentence because of a special fact; reprieve temporarily stays execution.
The President's power over death sentences does not erase the Governor's power under applicable law/Article 161. Clemency is a constitutional executive power exercised on ministerial advice and remains subject to limited judicial review on recognised grounds such as mala fides or irrelevant considerations.
13. Vice-President: election, role and removal
Feature
President
Vice-President
Electoral college
Elected MPs + elected State/Delhi/Puducherry MLAs; nominated MPs excluded.
All members of both Houses of Parliament, elected and nominated; State legislators excluded.
Vote value
Weighted values under Article 55.
Each MP's vote value is one.
Minimum age
35 years.
35 years.
Membership qualification
Qualified for election to Lok Sabha.
Qualified for election to Rajya Sabha.
Nomination
50 proposers + 50 seconders; ₹15,000 deposit.
20 proposers + 20 seconders; ₹15,000 deposit.
Resignation addressed to
Vice-President.
President.
Removal
Impeachment by either House initiating, two-thirds of total membership at both decisive stages.
Rajya Sabha initiates: majority of all then members; Lok Sabha agrees; at least 14 days' notice.
Oath administered by
Chief Justice of India, or senior-most available Supreme Court judge.
President or a person appointed by the President.
The Vice-President is ex officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha but is not a member of that House. As presiding officer, the Chairman does not vote in the first instance and has a casting vote when votes are equal. When acting as President or discharging presidential functions, the Vice-President does not perform the Chairman's duties or draw the Chairman's salary.
If the President's office becomes vacant through death, resignation, removal or otherwise, the Vice-President acts as President until the newly elected President enters office. If the President is temporarily unable because of absence, illness or another cause, the Vice-President discharges the functions until the President resumes. In that period the Vice-President has the President's powers and immunities.
A Vice-President's casual-vacancy election must be held as soon as possible; Article 68 does not prescribe the President's six-month outer limit. The new Vice-President receives a full five-year term. Removal is not called impeachment and Article 67 does not state “violation of the Constitution” as its ground.
14. Election disputes and ballot discipline
Under Article 71, all doubts and disputes connected with either election are decided finally by the Supreme Court. If an election is later declared void, official acts performed before the decision are not invalid merely for that reason. Both elections use secret preference ballots; the Election Commission's official instructions also state that political parties cannot issue a whip for this voting.
16. Bihar relevance
Bihar's elected MLAs participate in the Presidential election, but Bihar Legislative Council members do not. Elected Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members connected with Bihar vote in the Presidential election; all serving members of both parliamentary Houses, including nominated Rajya Sabha members, form the Vice-Presidential electoral college. The ECI's 2022 presidential table recorded 243 elected Bihar Assembly seats, vote value 173 per MLA and total value 42,039. Bihar's Governor is appointed by the President under Article 155, but the appointment itself is not an election by Bihar's legislators.