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Mention the Qualification Necessary for Election as President of India

Last Updated : 29 Dec, 2022
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The President of India is the head of the country and is likewise the first citizen of India. Article 52 of the Constitution of India mentions that there should be a President of India. Smt Draupadi Murmu is the current President of India and also the 15th President of India.

The specified information about the election of the president in India and articles associated with the President of India is mentioned in this article. The President of India is an integral part of the union executive together with the Vice President of India, the Prime Minister of India, the Council of Union Ministers, and an Attorney Journal.

According to Article 47, Draft Constitution of India, 1948 

The Constituent Assembly on 27th December 1948 and 13th October 1949, debated Draft Article 47 (Article 58, Constitution of India, 1950). The Draft Article lays down the desired qualifications for an individual to be elected as an Indian President.

A member desired to make certain that a Minister who desired to run for the President’s office first resigned from his present-day ministerial workplace. This, he reasoned, could keep away from the misuse of the Minister’s office and body of workers for the Presidential campaign. The Chairman of the Drafting Committee made significant that this amendment could ‘create entire administrative chaos’. If Ministers had been to resign, then all administrative duties could come to a halt. It could now no longer be possible to delegate this position to bureaucrats or transient Ministers. He similarly mentioned that the Election Commission, a constitutional body of India, could make certain honest elections and prevent any Minister from being exercised undue influence.

There turned into an amendment that required President-elect to claim all ‘title, right, share, assets and interest’ in any government-aided or supported entities, commercial enterprise, or trade. Such property had been to be sold through the government. The amendment mover invoked German President Hindenburg’s involvement with the Prussian landlords which bolstered the Nazi authorities and strongly urged ‘that President have to be free from any entanglements’. Some participants opposed this notion and argued that it might infringe on the right to maintain non-public assets which turned into a known Fundamental Right.

The Chairman of the Drafting Committee discovered that the notion turned into a substitute novel and unprecedented: he illustrated how even the American Constitution, which followed a Presidential form of government, did not have a comparable provision. Moreover, this amendment turned useless because the Indian Constitution considered the role of the President as a nominal figurehead’. If the Assembly had been to undertake this, there could be a dearth of Presidential candidates.

All these substantive amendments had been rejected. On December 27th, 1948, the Draft Article was followed with a minor modification. The Drafting Committee efficiently moved another minor amendment on October 13th, 1949. Based on the above draft debate, the qualifications necessary to be elected as President of India are mentioned below.

Qualifications for Election of Indian President

No individual will be eligible for election as President of India unless

  • He / She has to be an Indian Citizen,
  • He or She has completed the age of 35 years, and
  • He or She must be certified for election as a member of the House of the People.

An individual will not be eligible for election as President if he holds any position or office of emolument under the Union Government or the Government of any State or below any local or any other authority challenge to the management of any of the mentioned Governments.

Explanation

For the functions of this clause an individual must not be deemed to hold any role or office of emolument through a motive most effective that:

  1. He or she is a minister either for Government India or for any State government for the time being laid out in Part one of the First Schedule; or
  2. He or she is a minister for any State government for the time being laid out in Part III of the First Schedule, if he’s accountable to the Legislature of the State, or, in which there are two Legislature Houses of the State, to the Lower House of the Legislature, and if not much less than three-fourths of the participants of the Legislature or House, as the situation might also additionally be, are elected.

Sample Questions

Question 1: What does Article 54 state?

Answer:

Article 54 mentions that there should be an election for the President of India. The President of India is elected indirectly via way of the single-transferable vote casting process. The President of India is elected by an electoral college along with elected representatives of the authorities that form the government after being elected in the national elections and state assembly. The nominated participants of each the houses and state legislatures aren’t allowed for voting in the election of President. 

Question 2: What does Article 55 state?

Answer: 

Article 55 mentions about the manner of the election of the President of India. It says that:

  • The President of India must be elected indirectly by an electoral college.
  • The Presidential election shall be done through a secret ballot.
  • The Presidential election must be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation through a single transferable voting process. 

Question 3: What does the electoral college of the Presidential election consists of?

Answer:

The electoral college of the election of Indian President is composed of:

  • Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha
  • Legislative Assemblies of the Indian States
  • Legislative Assemblies of the Union Territories of Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir  and Puducherry (Since 1992 via 70th Amendment Act of the Constitution)

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