Recently the elections to post of President took place and India elected it's first Female tribal President, the first to be born after Independence Smt. Droupadi Murmu(The BJP - NDA candidate) who fought beside Sh. Yashwant Sinha(UPA candidate). Now, the elections to the post of Vice President are on the cards. It must have stuck to your mind what this position holds and who this is? Is it like someone elected as VP in USA such as Kamala Harris? Let's figure this out.
As you know that President is the head of state in India and not the head of the government who is the Prime Minister and all the actions taken by the government are in the name of the President and the president holds the authority to dismiss, appoint the government and with hold the assent to the bill passed by the parliament, subject to the conditions. But Vice President is neither the head of the state subordinate to the President of India rather he or she is the Chairman of the Upper House that is the Rajya Sabha and conducts the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha as it is done by the speaker of Lok Sabha, presently Shri Om Birla.
Article 63 of the Constitution states that “there shall be a Vice-President of India”. Under Article 64, the Vice-President “shall be ex officio Chairman of the Council of the States”
The Vice President of India is elected by all the members of the Parliament that is both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha but he becomes the member of only the Rajya Sabha and has nothing to do with the functioning of the Lok Sabha directly. The electoral college consist of only MP's and not the members of state legislative assembly by the system of proportional representation using single transferable votes and the voting is conducted by Election Commission of India. As said by Article 66.
Basically each candidate standing up for the elections of the VP is listed on a slip and every MP has to mark his order of preference among them that is starting from one to 'n' and those votes will be counted in the same manner. For example: a, b, c stood in VP elections. One MP will give first preference to x and second to y and third to z, let's say. Now all the MP's will give their preference of order and while counting also we see who got how many one's and who got two's and in the end if we don't surpass the number of 50% for number of ones than number of two's are added and so on.
Article 65 says that “in the event of the occurrence of any vacancy in the office of the President by reason of his death, resignation or removal, or otherwise, the Vice-President shall act as President until the date on which a new President…enters upon his office”.
The Vice-President shall also discharge the functions of the President when the latter is unable to do so “owing to absence, illness or any other cause”.
Article 66(3) says “No person shall be eligible for election as Vice-President unless he — (a) is a citizen of India; (b) has completed the age of thirty-five years; and (c) is qualified for election as a member of the Council of States”.
Under Article 66(4), “A person shall not be eligible for election as Vice-President if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said Governments.”
Article 67 lays down that the “Vice-President shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office”.
During this period, the Vice-President shall “have all the powers and immunities of the President and be entitled to… (the) emoluments, allowances and privileges” that are due to the President. The office of the Vice-President of India is the second-highest constitutional office after that of the President, and ranks second in the order of precedence.
A Vice President cannot be the Member of any house of Parliament , if elected he or she has to vacate his seat of MP.
Article 71 of the Constitution deals with “Matters relating to, or connected with, the election of a President or Vice-President”. It says that “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”
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