Introduction
Article 63 and
64 mandates that there shall be a Vice President of India who also shall be ex officio
Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and shall not hold any other office of profit.
However, during the period when the Vice President acts as President, he shall
not perform the duties of Chairman of Rajya Sabha.
Article 65
states that in the event of any vacancy (including when the President is unable
to discharge his functions) in the office of the President, the Vice President
shall act as the President of India until a new President is elected. The Vice President
shall have all the powers of the President during such period.
Eligibility
for the Post of Vice - President
1. He
shall not be a member of either House of Parliament or Legislature of any
state. If he is so and he is elected Vice President, he shall be deemed to have
vacated his seat in that House.
2. He must
be a citizen of India.
3. He
must have completed the age of thirty-five years.
4. He
is qualified for election as a member of the Council of States.
5. He
must not hold any office of profit. (A person shall not be deemed to hold any
office of profit by reason only that he is the President or Vice - President of
the Union or the Governor of any State or is a Minister either for the Union or
for any State.)
The
Vice - President of India shall hold office for a term of five years. There are two ways
by which he can be removed.
1.
Vice - President may, by writing under his hand addressed to the President,
resign his office.
2. A
Vice - President may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Rajya
Sabha passed by a majority of all the then members of the Rajya Sabha and
agreed to by the Lok Sabha.
However, a
Vice-President shall, notwithstanding the expiration of his term, continue to
hold office until his successor enters upon his office. Also, an election to
fill a vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of Vice - President
shall be completed before the expiration of the term. Whatever may be the
reason for an election to fill vacancy of Vice - President, the person election
to fill the vacancy shall be entitled to hold office for the full term of five
years.
Election of
Vice - President of India
Article 66(1) of
the Constitution provides that the Vice - President shall be elected by the
members of an electoral college consisting of the members of both Houses of
Parliament including the nominated members in accordance with the system of
proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote by a
secret ballot. The mode of election of the Vice - President differs from that of
the President insofar as the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of
States do not form part of the Electoral College for the election of the
Vice - President.
The Electoral
Process is governed by the Presidential and Vice - Presidential Elections Act,
1952 (Hereinafter referred to as ‘Act’). The Election of the Vice - President is
conducted by the Election Commission. A notification to this effect is issued
by the ECI in consultation with the Government of India, appointing a Returning
Officer for the purposes of Vice - President’s Election.
By convention,
the Secretary-General, Lok Sabha or the Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha with the
approval of the Speaker, Lok Sabha or the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, as the case
may be, is appointed in rotation, as the Returning Officer to conduct such an
election.
Every candidate
shall deposit a sum of Rs.15,000 only in cash with the Returning Officer at the
time of presentation of the nomination paper.
After counting
the total valid votes (a ballot paper shall be invalid if it is not marked
properly thereby rendering the vote invalid) polled by each candidate, the
Returning Officer totals up the valid votes polled by all the contesting
candidates.
The quota for
declaring a candidate as elected is determined by dividing the total valid
votes by 2 and adding one to the quotient, ignoring the remainder, if any.
Example:
Let us assume
the total valid votes polled by all candidates to be 701. The quota required
for getting elected would be:
701/2 + 1 =
350.50 + 1 (Ignore 0.50)
Quota = 350 +
1 = 351
After
ascertaining the quota, the Returning Officer has to see whether any candidate
secured the quota for being declared as elected on the basis of the total of
first preference votes polled by him/her.
If no candidate
gets the quota on the basis of first preference votes, then the Returning
Officer proceeds further to second round of counting during which the candidate
having lowest number of votes of first preference is excluded and his votes are
distributed among the remaining candidates according to the second preference
marked on these ballot papers. The other continuing candidates receive the
votes of excluded candidate at the same value of ONE.
The Returning
Officer will go on excluding the candidates with lowest number of votes in
subsequent rounds of counting till either one of the continuing candidates gets
the required quota or till only one candidate remains in the field as the sole
continuing candidate[1].
When the
counting is complete and the result of the voting has been determined, the
Returning Officer shall declare the result to those present. The declaration
mentioned is at once communicated by the Returning Officer to the Election
Commission and the Ministry of Law and Justice.
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