The Executive in India

The executive (Articles 52 to 78) in India means the constitutional executive in the form of (a) head of the state’the President of India, and (b) head of the government’the prime Minister along with the Council of Ministers. “This is called the political executive. “There is the permanent executive in the form of permanent administrative states’the cabinet secretariat, the central secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office.

The President of India

The President of India is the executive head of the Union Government. With parliamentary system as has been adopted in India, the President of India occupies the position of the head of the State with all the powers in his name to be exercised by all else except (especially the President) the very few, only at occasions which are usually very rare. “The office of the President of India is, indeed, significant and needs to be, thoroughly, discussed.

Introductory

Article 52 of the Constitution provides for the office of the President of India. “This means that the office of the President is not only a constitutional office, but is one without which the executive is incomplete: there cannot be a situation in which the President has not been there. Article 53 has three parts: 53(1), 53(2) and 53(3):

Article 53(1) says that the executive power of the Union is to be vested in the President, which power is to be exercised either by him directly or through officers subordinate to him, in accordance with the Constitution.

Article 53(2) says that the supreme command of the Defence Forces of the Union is to be vested in the President and that the exercise thereof is to be regulated by law.

Article 53(3) has two parts: (a) and (b): In part (a) of Article 53(3), it is said that any function, now possessed by any government of the State or other authority can be transferred to the President while part (b) of Article 53(3): says, that the Parliament can confer by law any function(s) on authorities other than the President.

“The whole Article 53 is informative (i) it is the President who has been described as the repository of all executive powers of the Union Government, for the executive powers are vested in him; (ii) he is the supreme commander of the Defence Forces of the Union Government, (iii) as the executive head of the Union, the President exercises all the executive powers either directly himself or through officers subordinate (usually appointed) to him; (iv) the exercise of all the executive power is to be done in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution; (v) the exercise of powers relating to those of the supreme commander is to be regulated by law’law as passed by the Parliament; (vi) the functions relating to the government of any state or other authority can be transferred to the President; and (vii) the Parliament, by law, confer any function(s) on authorities other than the President; i.e., the Parliament has the power to take away, and not grant, any function to any other authority other than the President.

Article 53, therefore, indicates limitations under which the President has to exercise his powers and perform his functions: all executive powers are to be exercised in accordance with the Constitution and as regulated by law. Furthermore, it is to be noted that the President, in the exercise of his functions has to seek the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister (Article 74), whose advice is binding on the President (42nd amendment ‘ 1976) though he may ask the Council of Ministers to reconsider the advice given (44th Amendment in 1978). It is, thus, clear that the President has to act in accordance with the advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister.

The Election of the President

Article 54 of the Constitution says that 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. In this article and in Article 55, the word ‘States’ include the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the union territory of Puducherry, i.e., the legislative assemblies of both Delhi and Puducherry. Article 55 explains the manner of election of the President.

Article 55 of the Constitution says: 1. As far as practicable, there shall be uniformity in the scale of representation of the different States for the election of the President. 2. For the purpose of securing such uniformity among the States inter se as well as parity between States as a whole and the Union, the number of votes which each elected members of Parliament and of the Legislative Assembly of each state is entitled to cast at such election shall be determined in accordance with the Constitution. 3. “The election of the President shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote system and the voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.

Value of votes of elected members of the State legislative assemblies and both Houses of Parliament are decided as per provisions of Article 55(2) of the Constitution of India. Presidential elections of India involve proportional representation from respective states. “The number of votes assigned to a particular voter from a legislative assembly is decided as follows: Total population of the state Total number of members of the Legislative Assembly of the State 1000 ‘ Let us try to know the number of votes a member of the legislative assembly of a state and a member of Parliament obtain in the Presidential election through an example.

First of all, let us know the number of the votes of an elected member of the legislative assembly of a state gets and the total number of votes polled from the State in the Presidential election. Let us suppose that the total number of elected members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly are 90. According to the formula stated above, the total population of Haryana, let us imagine, is 6,30,000,00. “The calculation of the votes obtained by an elected MLA of Haryana would be :

= Total population of the state of Haryana

Total number of elected MLAs 1000 = 6,30,0000

1000 = 70000 1000 = 70 votes to be obtained by an elected MLA and the total votes polled from Haryana in the Presidential elections would be 6300 “Thus, the total number of votes of every other elected member of every other State and the total number of votes of all the elected members of every other State are calculated. “Thereafter the total number of all the votes polled by all the States are added. Let us suppose that such a total number of votes so polled is 74,94,00. “The elected members of both the House of the Parliament also get 74,90,00 which number is divided by the number of the elected MPs’say Lok Sabha 540 and the Rajya Sabha 240, which would come to as follows: 74,94,00 = 780 960 60 780 Because the quotient is less than the half, the total number of votes an elected MP gets in the Presidential elections would be 960.

Whatever the number of votes either the MLA or the MP gets in the Presidential elections, each voter has to give all the votes to one candidate’he/she cannot divide the votes and give the divided number of votes to two or more Presidential candidates. “The mode of voting is done in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferrable vote. “The voting done is secret ballot, which works as follows: Let us imagine that there are four candidates contesting the Presidential election, and the total number of valid votes polled is 1,50,000. “The winning candidates has to obtain clear majority of votes which would mean in this case, 1,50,000 divided by two and then adding one’i.e; 1,50,000 ‘ 1/2 = 75000 + 1 = 7500% In the first count, the following result comes out : A : 52500 B : 48000 C : 27000 D : 22500 Since no one candidate gets a minimum of 75001, the total votes of the candidate D are divided to their second preference as to eliminate him from the Presidential election because he cannot get elected with the most minimum votes in the Presidential elections.

Now, after the second count, the following result comes out : A : 52500 + 3000 = 55500 B : 48000 + 1050 = 49050 C : 27000 + 18450 = 45450 Since the candidate ‘C’ cannot win, he is now eliminated and his second or third preferences votes are divided among ‘A’ and ‘B’. As a result, the following figures come out: A : 55500 : 20000 : 75500 B : 49050 : 25450 : 74500 “us ‘A’ candidate gets 75500, i.e., more than 75001, he is declared elected as the President. It may be noted that the elections of the President and the Vice-President cannot be challenged on the ground that there exists any vacancy in a particular electoral college for whatever reason (Dr. N.B. Khare v. Election Commissioner of India’1957). In the 2012 Presidential election, Pranab Mukherjee got 373,116 MP votes and 340,647 MLA votes (total votes 713763) while P.A. Sangma got 145,848 MP votes and 170,130 MLA votes (total votes 315,978, though total number of votes polled 78?Indian Polity and Governance were 1029750, the remaining votes were either invalid or obtained by other candidates).

Assam had two invalid votes and one abstention. In Bihar, three, in Karnataka, one MLA abstained. In Bihar, three votes were invalid with one abstention. In Haryana, there were 8 invalid votes. In Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram one vote each was invalid. In Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Meghalaya and Nagaland and Punjab and Sikkim, there were in each State two invalid votes. In West Bengal, four votes were invalid. Telugu Desam party and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti in Andhra Pradesh and the Communist Party of India in Kerala and the Revolutionary Socialist Party in West Bengal abstained from voting. Ram Nath Kovind was sworn in as the 14th President of India on July 25, 2017. “The term of office of the President, according to Article 56, is five years with a provision for re-election (Article 57). He can resign before the expiry of his usual term, resignation to be addressed to the Vice-President or can be removed by impeachment for violation of the Constitution in the manner as stated in Article 61. Article 58 prescribes the qualifications for the election as President. “These are: (a) is a citizen of India, (b) has completed the age of thirty-five years, and (c) is qualified for election as a member of the House of the People.