The Union Executive - The President

Parliamentary form of Government:

In this type of governmental setup, the President merely reigns over the people and doesn’t rule. The essence
of parliamentary form of government is that the President is the constitutional head whereas the real
executive power lies with the cabinet of ministers. And the Prime Minister serves as the head of the cabinet.

The President

Article 52 of the constitution says there shall be a President of India. He is the head of the state. And the
executive power of the Union is vested to him by Art 53. The expression ‘executive power’ is not defined in
the constitution except in Art 73 where it is said the executive powers are co extensive with the legislative
powers of the Union. In Ram Jawaya Kapur Vs State of Punjab, the supreme court said that it may not be
possible to frame an exhaustive definition for executive functions. Ordinarily, the residue of government
functions that remain after the legislative and judiciary are taken away will amount to the executive function.
Under Art 73 and 163, the executive power is not merely confined to administration of laws already enacted
but it also includes determination of Government policy, initiation of legislation, maintenance of law and
order. But the executive powers of the Union doesn’t extend to the concurrent list unless it is expressly
provided in the constitution e.g., Art 256,257,258,353 and 356 or expressly entrusted by a law made by the
parliament.

Article 54 provides that the president shall be voted through an electoral college consisting,

A) The elected members of both houses of the parliament

B) The elected members of the State legislative assembly.
The election of the president shall be done in accordance with Art 55, it stresses on the uniformity in the
scale of representation and prescribes a mode to ensure that uniformity.
Every elected member of the Legislative Assembly of a state shall have as many votes as there are multiples
of 1000 in the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the state by the total number of elected
members. If by this division the remainder is 500 or more it will be counted as one and each of the members
vote will be increased by one. It is based on the ratio of population of the state.