Election and Qualification of President

Introduction 

According to the Indian Constitution, the President of India will always be in office (See Article 52 of the Constitution). He is chosen in accordance with the terms of the Constitution and the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act of 1952 and holds the highest elective office in the nation. The provisions of the 1974 Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules augment the aforementioned Act, and together with the aforementioned Rules, they make up a comprehensive Code that governs all facets of the conduct of presidential elections.

The President serves for a five-year term beginning on the day he assumes office, hence an election must be held this year (2017) to choose the new leader before the current President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, completes his tenure on July 24, 2017.

Qualifications and Terms of Office

 Presidency Requirements: Article 59 states that: I The President shall not be a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any State, and (ii) The President shall not hold any other office for profit. If the President is a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any State and is elected as President, he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in that House on the date of his inauguration as President.

Presidents are chosen to serve five-year terms beginning on the day they take office, and they are up for re-election after that (Articles 56-57). However, if he resigns (in writing to the Vice-President) or (ii) is removed on allegations of violating the Constitution through the procedure of impeachment as specified in the Constitution, his tenure in office may be shortened.

Election requirements for the presidency:

A person must meet all of the following requirements in order to be eligible for election as president: I they must be an Indian citizen; (ii) they must be at least 35 years old; (iii) they must be eligible to vote in the Lok Sabha; and (iv) they must not hold any paid positions with the governments of India, any State, or any local or other authority that is under their control (Article 58).

Nonetheless, a current President, Vice-President, or Governor of the Union, or a Minister for the Union or for any State, is not ineligible to be elected as President (Article 58).

In addition to the prerequisites listed above, the ordinance, published on June 5, 1997, stipulates that the presidential candidate must have 50 primary ideas and 50 supplementary suggestions. The security deposit was raised from $2,500 to $15,000 as well.

Election Process:

 Articles 54 and 55 describe how the presidential election will be conducted. While Article 54 calls for the establishment of an electoral college made up of all elected MLAs and MPs, Article 55 establishes a formula for uniformity in the scale of representation of various States, to the extent that is practically possible, by incorporating the proportional representation with single transferable vote system. total amount of votes cast for a candidate

MLA = State's population/Total Number of Elected Members

Total votes cast for a Member of Parliament = Total votes cast for all elected MLAs.

total number of MLAs elected

The goal of this electoral process was to attain political parity between the federal government and the states by making the presidential election broadly based. Hence, the President speaks for both the Union and the states. This is consistent with the Indian Polity's federal structure.

Quota System

Only candidates who receive more than 50% of the total number of votes cast are officially recognised as the winner of the presidency. The next stage is to determine the quota because the President is chosen using a single transferable vote and proportional representation.

The total number of votes cast is divided by the total number of members who must return plus one, and the quota is calculated by adding one to the quotient. The equation is:

Amount of votes cast multiplied by 1/Number of members to be chosen plus one

Oath or Affirmation by the President

According to Article 60, anyone serving as President or carrying out the duties of the President must take an oath or affirmation in front of the Chief Justice of India, or, in his absence, the senior-most Judge of the Chief, before beginning their duties.

Justice of India or, in acknowledgement in the following form, that is to say to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the law to devote himself to the services as well as the well-being of the people of India and will, to the best of my ability, devote myself to the service and well-being of the people of India.

Emoluments and Allowances

According to Article 59(3), the President is entitled to the use of his official residence without having to pay rent, as well as any other emoluments, allowances, or privileges that Parliament may by legislation establish. His current monthly salary is fixed at 1.5 lakh.

A Rs. 3,000,00,000 annual pension is due to the President upon the conclusion of his tenure or resignation. The President's compensation and benefits cannot be reduced while he is in office. He is allowed to spend up to Rs. 15, 26,000 on travel, entertainment, grants that are at his discretion, personnel, residential costs, and his own allowances each year.

How is the President chosen?

According to the rules outlined in the Constitution, an Electoral College conducts the difficult process of electing the president.

the elected members of both Houses of Parliament who make up the members of the Electoral College.

ii) State legislative assemblies' elected members (including National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Pondicherry).

The Electoral College does not accept nominations for either the House of Representatives or the State Assemblies.

Why is the President indirectly elected?

The President is chosen in a secondary manner because:

A direct election by the entire public, as it was in the case of the President of the United States, was deemed neither necessary nor advisable in light of the adoption of a cabinet system of government under which the President was to serve as a constitutional head of State. Yet, it was deemed preferable for the President to be chosen by the largest number of people. Under the current system, both of these goals have been accomplished. It's important to emphasise the need of an electoral college that includes representatives from both Houses of Parliament as well as state assemblies. A party with a clear majority in Parliament may be able to easily see its candidates elected in an election where the President of the Nation is chosen if only members of Parliament take part.

The picture is likely to significantly change when the members of the State Assembly participate in the election. So, it's entirely feasible that the party that earned a majority in the legislature will be in the minority in a number of state assemblies, if not the majority of them. A president who equally represents the States and the Union is the result of such an electoral college. This is, in fact, completely in line with the Indian Constitution's overall design, which is neither totally federal nor purely unitary.

Conclusion

The vice-president assumes control of the presidency until the next election in the event that the Indian president becomes ill or passes away. According to the Indian Constitution, the nation cannot go more than one day without a president. When the President and Vice President are both unavailable, which is extremely rare, the Chief Justice of India takes over until the next election. A such situation only ever occurred in 1969, when Mr. M. Hidayatullah, the Chief Justice of India, temporarily assumed the role of President.