Constitutional Law-I

The President
Dr. Amit Kashyap
Associate Professor,
School of Law,
Lovely Professional University,
Phagwara-144411.
Punjab

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 Introduction
• Three organs of the State: Legislature, executive and judiciary
• Union executive consists of :
the President
the Vice President
the Prime Minister and Council of Minister
the Attorney General
• Under the Indian Constitution, the President of India enjoys a
unique position.
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 Introduction
• President is the head of the Union Executive.
• The President of India is the head of state of the Republic of
India.
• He is considered to be above party politics and is not a
member of any political party.
• The President is the first citizen of the country and formal
head of the executive, legislature and judiciary of India.

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 POSITION OF THE PRESIDENT
UNDER INDIAN CONSTITUTION
Art.52- There shall be a President of India.

Why is the President called the nominal head of the state?

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 POSITION OF THE PRESIDENT
UNDER INDIAN CONSTITUTION
• Art.53(1)- The executive powers of the Union shall be vested in
the President of India and shall be exercised either directly or
through officers subordinate to him in accordance with the
Constitution.
• Art. 74 (original)- There shall be a Council of Ministers with the
Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President in the
exercise of his functions.
• Art. 74(2) The question whether any, and if so what, advice was
tendered by Ministers to the President shall not be inquired into
in any court.
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POSITION OF THE PRESIDENT UNDER INDIAN CONSTITUTION

• It was giving the impression that the President could become a

dictator, if he so desires.
• It was against the Parliamentary form of govt., which is part of
the basic structure of the Constitution.
• After 42nd Amendment Act, 1976-
Art. 74 (1) reads thus: “There shall be a Council of Ministers
with
the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President
who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with
such advice:”
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 POSITION OF THE PRESIDENT
UNDER INDIAN CONSTITUTION
• The Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978-
“Provided that the President may require the Council of
Ministers to reconsider such advice, either generally or otherwise,
and the President shall act in accordance with the advice tendered
after such reconsideration.”

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 Article 58. Qualifications for election as
President
(a) Should be a citizen of India
(b) Should be of not less than 35 years of age;
(c) Should be qualified for elections as a member of the House of
people; and
(d) Should not hold any office of profit under the Government of
India or any State Government or any local authority subject to the
control of any of these Government;
(e) Must not be a member of the parliament.

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 Article 59. Qualifications for election as
President
• Art. 59(1)- The President shall not be a member of either House
of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any State, and if
a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the
Legislature of any State be elected President, he shall be deemed
to have vacated his seat in that House on the date on which he
enters upon his office as President.

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 ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT
(Art.54)
• The President of India is elected by indirect election that is by an
electoral college through secret ballot, in accordance with the
system of proportional representation by means of the single
transferable vote.
• Electoral College which elects President consists of-
-Elected members of both the Houses of Parliament (does
not include nominated members)
-Elected MP’s and elected MLA’s at the state level
-MLA’s of National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union
territory of Pondicherry are also included. (70th Amendment, 1992)
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 Article 59. Qualifications for election as
President
• As far as practicable, there shall be uniformity of representation of
the different states at the election, according to the population and
the total number of elected members of the Legislative Assembly of
each state, and parity shall also be maintained between the State as a
whole and the Union (Article 55).

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 Article 59. Qualifications for election as
President
(a) Every elected member of the Legislative Assembly of a State shall
have as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the
quotient obtained by dividing the population of the State by the total
number of the elected members of the Assembly;
(b) if, after taking the said multiple of one thousand; the remainder
is not less than five hundred than the vote of each member referred to
in sub-clause (a) shall be further increased by one;

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 Article 59. Qualifications for election as
President
(c) Each elected member of either House of Parliament shall
have such number of votes as may be obtained by dividing the
total number of votes assigned to the members of the Legislative
Assemblies of the States under sub-clause (a) and (b) by the total
number of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament,
fractions exceeding one-half being counted as one and other
fractions disregarded.

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 Single Transferable Vote System of
Proportional Representation
Under this system names of all the candidates are listed on the ballot
paper and the elector gives them numbers according to his/her
preference. Every voter may mark on the ballot paper as many
preferences as there are candidates. Thus the elector shall place the
figure 1 opposite the name of the candidate whom he/she chooses for
first preference and may mark as many preferences as he/she wishes by
putting the figures 2, 3, 4 and so on against the names of other
candidates. The ballot becomes invalid if first preference is marked
against more than one candidate or if the first preference is not marked
at all.

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 Single Transferable Vote System of
Proportional Representation
• Dispute regarding election (Art.71)-All doubts and disputes
arising out of or in connection with the election of a President or
Vice-President shall be inquired into and decided by the Supreme
Court whose decision shall be final.
• Term of office of President (Art.56)-The President shall hold
office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters
upon his office.
• Oath or affirmation by the President (Art. 60)- in the presence
of the Chief Justice of India or, in his absence, the senior-most
Judge of the Supreme Court available.
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