THE EXECUTIVE
A-Union Executive
52.The President of India:
There shall be a president of India.
COMMENTS
India has an elected President at the head of the Republic like the United States. India doesn’t have a monarchy. But India has a unique position of being a Parliamentary democracy and a federal polity with permanent President.
53. Executive Power of the Union:
(1) The executive power of the Union shall be vested in the President and shall be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with this Constitution.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provision, the supreme command of the Defence Forces of the Union shall be vested in the President and the exercise thereof shall be regulated by law.
(3) Nothing in this Article shall--- (a) be deemed to transfer to the president any functions conferred by any existing law on the Government of any State or other authority; or (b) prevent Parliament from conferring by law functions on authorities other than the President.
COMMENTS
The executive function comprises both the determination of the policy as well as carrying it into execution, the maintenance of order, the promotion of social and economic welfare, the direction pf foreign policy, the carrying on or supervision of the general administration of the state executive functions etc. The executive power connotes the residue of governmental functions that remain after legislative and judicial functions are taken away. The executive power so long as it does not violate the constitution or the law, may be exercised without prior legislative support. The president in India is also the supreme commander of armed forces. He has legislative power of the summoning, prorogation, dissolution, etc. of the Legislatures, initiation and assent to legislation and the like. President also has judicial power, i.e. granting of pardons, reprieves, etc. to person convicted of crime.
The administrative power includes the power to appoint and remove the high dignitaries of the State like the Prime Minister of India, Chairman, UPSC. The Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, Attorney General for India, the Governors, etc.
A question was raised whether a person who was not a member of either House of Parliament could be appointed Prime Minister. It was held that under Article 75(5) such a person could be a minister was also a Minister, he could be appointed from among non- members if he had the confidence of the House.
In some such situations, the role of the president may become most crucial and decisive. This happened, for instance, when Charan Singh, Rajiv Gandhi and Chandra Shekhar came to be appointed to the office of Prime Minister.
54.Election of President:
The President shall be elected by the Members of an electoral college consisting of:
(a) the elected members of both the Houses of Parliament; and
(b) the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States.
Explanation:
In this Article and in article 55, “State” includes the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Pondicherry.
55. Manner of Election of President:
(1) As far as practicable, there shall be uniformity in the scale of representation of the different States at the election of the President.
(2) For the purpose of securing such uniformity among the States inter se as well as parity between the States as a whole and the Union, the number of votes which each elected member of Parliament and of the Legislative Assembly of each State is entitled to cast at such election shall be determined in the following manner: (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 multiples of one thousand, the remainder is not less than five hundred, then the vote of each member referred to in sub-clause (a) shall be further increased by one; (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-clauses (a) and (b) by the total number of the elected members of both the Houses of Parliament, fractions exceeding one-half being counted as one and other fractions being disregarded.
(3) The election of the President shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.
Explanation:
In this Article, the expression “population” means population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published: Provided that the reference in this Explanation to the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published shall, until the relevant figures for the first census taken after the year 2026 have been published, be construed as a reference to the 1971 census.
COMMENTS
It is provided that the purpose of securing uniformity among the States inter se as well as parity between the States as a whole and the Union, the number of votes which each elected member of Parliament and of the Legislative Assembly of each State is entitled to cast at such election shall be determined in the following manner.
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 elected members of the Assembly.
If, after taking the said multiples of one thousand, the remainder is not less than five hundred, then the vote of each member referred to in (a) above shall be further increased by one.
Illustration
Total population of a State ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 43,502,708
Total no. of elected members in the Assembly --------------------------------------------- 294
No. of votes for each value of each vote ----------------------------------------------------- 43,502,708
Divided by 1000 x 294 is ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 147.96 or 148
(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 (a) and (b) above by the total number of elected members both the Houses of Parliament, fractions exceeding one half being counted as one and other fractions being disregarded.
The total number of members in the electoral college for a Presidential election, for example was 4,848 as detailed below:
Rajya Sabha ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 233
Lok Sabha ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 543
State assemblies ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4,072
Total --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4,848
The method of providing parity between the States as a whole on the one hand and the Union on the other meant that the whole process tilted towards justifying the federal polity of India. The States got double representation – first as members of the Council of States and secondly as members of the State Assemblies. The idea was to provide scale of representation of different States inter se on the basis of population and to respect the ‘one man one vote’ principle.