The Vice-President of India is the 2nd highest executive authority after the President. He also serves as the Ex-Officio Chairman of the Upper House of Parliament; Rajya Sabha. As we know most of the provisions of our Constitution are replicas of some of the best constitutional provisions in the world and borrowed from various nations, so the provision of Vice-President too.
Article 63 of Indian Constitution provides for the post of Vice-President of India and this provision is adopted from the Constitution of the USA. Currently Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu is holding the charge as the 13th Vice-President of republic India. The Vice-President of India is appointed for a period of 5 years. Now let's have a look at the election procedure of Vice-President and how it differs from that of President.
Election of Vice-President of India
The Vice-President of India is elected through an electoral college consisting of members of the both houses of Parliament. This kind of election procedure where the vote is given through a secret ballot is considered as Indirect election. The procedure differs in some manner from the procedure of election of President such as:
- In the case of a Presidential election only elected members of Parliament can participate while both elected and nominated members can participate in the election of Vice-President.
- While the members from state legislative assemblies are included in the election of President, they are excluded in case of Vice-President's election.
Eligibility To Become Vice-President
Article 66 of Indian Constitution provides the election procedure of Vice-President. There are some basic qualifications that a person needs to fulfill to participate in the election of Vice-president of India. These are as follows:
- The first and foremost eligibility is that He/She needs to be a citizen of India.
- The 2nd criteria is about age. The person should have completed the age of 35 years.
- He should be qualified to be a member of Rajya sabha.
- He should not hold any office of profit under the Union Government, state government or any public authority.
Articles Related to Vice-President of India
Here we are presenting the list of important articles from 63 to 71, related to the Vice-President of India.
Article 63: The Vice-President of India.
Article 64: The Vice-President to be the Ex-officio Chairman of the council of state.
Article 65: The Vice-president to act-as President or to discharge his functions during casual vacancies in the office or during the absence of President.
Article 66: Election of Vice-President.
Article 67: Terms of office of Vice-President.
Article 69: Oath or Affirmation by the Vice-President.
Article 71: Matters relating to, or connected with the election of Vice-President.
List of Vice-President of India From 1952 to Present
A | B | |
---|---|---|
1 | Vice - President of India | Term of office |
2 | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (First Vice-President of India) | 13 May 1952 - 12 May 1957 13 May 1957 - 12 May 1962 |
3 | Zakir Hussain | 13 May 1962 - 12 May 1967 |
4 | V. V. Giri | 13 May 1967 - 3 May 1969 |
5 | Gopal Swarup Pathak | 31 August 1969 - 30 August 1974 |
6 | B. D. Jatti | 31 August 1974 - 30 August 1979 |
7 | Mohammad Hidayatullah | 31 August 1979 - 30 August 1984 |
8 | R. Venkataraman | 31 August 1984 - 24 July 1987 |
9 | Shankar Dayal Sharma | 3 September 1987 - 24 July 1992 |
10 | K. R. Narayanan | 21 August 1992 - 24 July 1997 |
11 | Krishan Kant | 21 August 1997 - 27 July 2002 |
12 | Bhairon Singh Shekhawat | 19 August 2002 - 21 July 2007 |
13 | Mohammad Hamid Ansari | 11 August 2007 - 11 August 2012 11 August 2012 - 11 August 2017 |
14 | Venkaiah Naidu | 11 August 2017 - Incumbent |