How the Vice President of India is elected, what the Constitution says about the post

 The Election Commission of India on Tuesday (July 5) issued the notification for the election of the Vice President of India. The term of office of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu comes to an end on August 10. The election is scheduled for August 6, and July 19 is the last date for filing nominations.

Neither the NDA nor the Opposition have announced their candidate yet, but Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Steel Minister RCP Singh resigned from their posts on Wednesday (July 6), triggering speculation that Naqvi, in particular, could be the government’s nominee for the election. Another name doing the rounds is that of Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan.

Office of the Vice President

Article 63 of the Constitution states that “there shall be a Vice-President of India”. Under Article 64, the Vice-President “shall be ex officio Chairman of the Council of the States” (Rajya Sabha). Article 65 says that “in the event of the occurrence of any vacancy in the office of the President by reason of his death, resignation or removal, or otherwise, the Vice-President shall act as President until the date on which a new President…enters upon his office”.

The Vice-President shall also discharge the functions of the President when the latter is unable to do so “owing to absence, illness or any other cause”.

During this period, the Vice-President shall “have all the powers and immunities of the President and be entitled to… (the) emoluments, allowances and privileges” that are due to the President. The office of the Vice-President of India is the second-highest constitutional office after that of the President, and ranks second in the order of precedence.

Election of the Vice-President

Article 66 lays down the process of the election of the Vice-President.

It says the Vice-President “shall be elected by the members of an electoral college consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament 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”.

For the 16th Vice-Presidential Election, 2022, the Electoral College consists of 233 elected members of Rajya Sabha, 12 nominated members of Rajya Sabha, and 543 elected members of Lok Sabha, adding up to 788 members. In the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, the elector has to mark preferences against the names of the candidates.

“Preference can be marked in the international form of Indian numerals, in Roman form, or in the form in any recognised Indian languages… The elector can mark as many preferences as the number of candidates. While the marking of the first preference is compulsory for the ballot paper to be valid, other preferences are optional,” the Election Commission of India said in a release issued on June 29.

Under the Constitution, the Vice-President “shall not be a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any State”. If a member of any of these Houses is elected to the post, “he shall be deemed to have vacated his seat in that House on the date on which he enters upon his office as Vice-President”.

Eligibility and term of office

Article 66(3) says “No person shall be eligible for election as Vice-President unless he — (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 Council of States”.

Under Article 66(4), “A person shall not be eligible for election as Vice-President if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said Governments.”

Article 67 lays down that the “Vice-President shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office”. However, the Vice-President “shall, notwithstanding the expiration of his term, continue to hold office until his successor enters upon his office”.

The Vice-President may leave office before the end of his term by resigning to the President, or he “may be removed…by a resolution of the Council of States passed by a majority of all the then members of the Council and agreed to by the House of the People”.

What if the election is disputed?

Article 71 of the Constitution deals with “Matters relating to, or connected with, the election of a President or Vice-President”. It says that “all doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with the election of a President or Vice-President shall be inquired into and decided by the Supreme Court whose decision shall be final”.

Should the Supreme Court declare the election of the President or Vice-President void however, “acts done by him in the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of the office of President or Vice-President,…on or before the date of the decision of the Supreme Court shall not be invalidated by reason of that declaration”.

Also, “Parliament may by law regulate any matter relating to or connected with the election of a President or Vice-President”.

Source: Indian Express, 7/07/22

Quote of the Day July 5, 2022

 

“The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.”
Arthur C. Clarke

“संभावनाओं की सीमाओं का पता लगाने का एकमात्र रास्ता है कि उनसे आगे बढ़कर असंभव तक पहुंचा जाए।”
आर्थर सी. क्लार्क

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

 

Vol. 57, Issue No. 26-27, 25 Jun, 2022

Editorials

Demolish and Punish

Comment

Loss of Majority and Loss of Principles

Suhas Palshikar

From the Editor's Desk

Democracy Tottering between Deal and Dialogue

From 50 Years Ago

From 50 Years Ago: P C Mahalanobis: Strategy plus Data

Strategic Affairs

Authoritarian Populism, Illiberal Democracy and the Making of an Economic Crisis - The Case of Sri Lanka

Shweta Singh

Commentary

Revaluing Unpaid Work - The Case of the Orunodoi Scheme in Assam

Prabha Kotiswaran

Measuring Participation and Contribution of Rural Men and Women in Indian Agriculture

Anil Kumar, Ananta Sarkar, Neetish Kumar, Tanuja S, P S Pandey

Denationalised Elites and Their Search for Global Ranking of Higher Education Institutions

Arun Kumar Patnaik, K Laxminarayan A

Religious Polarisation Outweighs Ethnic Mobilisation - Explaining NDA’s Victory in Assam

Vikas Tripathi, Dhruba Pratim Sharma

Book Reviews

The Political Economy of India’s New Middle Class

Ashutosh Kumar

A Genuine Effort to Chronicle the Mughalpura Workers’ Movement

Robert Rahman Raman

The Strategic Myths Surrounding J&K’s Developmental Experience

T C A Raghavan

Quest for an Indian Manufacturing Future

Amit Basole

Perspectives

The Law of the Executive - Sedition and Its Political Functions

Anushka Singh

Insight

OTT Platforms and the New Dalit Characters in Indian Cinema

Harish S Wankhede

Special Articles

Right to the City - The Street Vendors Act of 2014 and the Collective Struggles of Women Vendors

Reeju Ray

Current Affairs- July 4, 2022

 

INDIA

– BJP MLA Rahul Narwekar elected as Maharashtra Assembly Speaker

– West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar returns bill making CM the chancellor of state universities

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Centre amends FCRA rules, allows Indians to receive up to Rs 10 lakh a year from kin staying abroad without disclosing

WORLD

– Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu claims capture of entire Luhansk Province of Ukraine after seizing Lysychansk city

2022 MALAYSIA OPEN BADMINTON: WINNERS

– 2022 Malaysia Open badminton tournament held from June 28 to July 3 at Kuala Lumpur

– Men’s singles: Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen

– Women’s singles: Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon

– Men’s doubles: Japan’s Takuro Hoki & Yugo Kobayashi

– Women’s doubles: Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu & Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti

– Mixed doubles: China’s Zheng Siwei & Huang Yaqiong

SPORTS

– Athletics: Parul Chaudhary creates new national record of 8:57.19 in women’s 3000m

Current Affairs- July 5, 2022

 

INDIA

– Maharashtra: CM Eknath Shinde wins floor test in Assembly

– Delhi Assembly passes bill to hike salaries and allowances of its members by over 66%

– AP: PM unveils 30-ft bronze statue of freedom fighter Alluri Sitarama Raju on his 125th birth anniversary in Bhimavaram

– Gujarat: PM inaugurates Digital India Week 2022 in Gandhinagar

– PM launches ‘Digital India Bhashini’ to enable easy access to internet and digital services in vernacular languages

– India gifts 75 ambulances, 17 school buses to Nepal

– Karnataka’s Sini Shetty crowned Miss India World 2022

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– RBI launches next round of its OBICUS (order books, inventories and capacity utilisation) survey of manufacturing companies

– Hotels and restaurants can’t levy service charge by default, says CCPA (Central Consumer Protection Authority)

– Gujarat, Karnataka best states for startup ecosystem: DPIIT (Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) rankings

– Govt completes disinvestment of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited in Odisha to Tata Steel Long Products Limited

– Drug pricing regulator NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) fixes retail prices of 84 drug formulations

WORLD

– Glacier collapses in Italian Alps, killing at least six

– British theatre director Peter Brook dies aged 97; awarded Padma Shri in 2021

SPORTS

– Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz wins Formula One British Grand Prix at Silverstone

Why do leaves fall off trees?

 

To survive in the environment as it becomes hostile, trees initiate abscission, the process of separation of leaves, naturally.

The ethereal beauty of Kashmir has inspired scores of poets and writers, artisans, and even Bollywood to churn out memorable works of art. Besides the breathtaking landscapes, the stimulation is also derived from the beauty of the Chinar leaf, the colour of which changes from green in summers to blood-red, amber, and yellow in autumn before they wither and fall. The tree that this leaf belongs to, the Chinar, is a majestic one known for its antiquity and magnificence. Another widely recognised leaf that is beautiful and unique is that of the Sugar Maple, an indigenous tree of Canada. The maple leaf in its autumn, fiery red avatar occupies a place of pride in the Canadian national flag.

Both Chinar and Maple are examples of deciduous trees that have broad and flat leaves which they shed once a year, leaving behind bare branches and a skeletal trunk. The plummeting of these leaves is actually an act of self-preservation against harsh weather conditions. They do not simply fall off, but are separated intentionally through a meticulous process. This loss of leaves in deciduous trees like oak, elm, beech, and maple happens primarily in winters which protects them from foliar frostbite. On the other hand, the tropical deciduous trees such as Peepal, Palash, Neem, and Ashok shed leaves between February and May which help them deal with seasonal droughts.

When we take a look at fossil records, they show that about 250 million years ago there was not a single tree on Earth designed to survive in temperatures below freezing point. They were all built for life in the tropics where the weather was always warm, water was liquid and leaves were safe year-round. If such trees grew in extreme cold regions, their water would freeze into sharp-edged ice crystals, fatally puncturing the living cells. Additionally, the Xylem tissue’s water would also freeze and bubbles would form from the gases that were previously dissolved in liquid water. When the ice would thaw, these bubbles would impede the upward flow of water, destroying the tree. And thus we see that for survival, the trees needed to prevent damage to the living cells due to ice crystal bubble formation.

Apart from extremely cold weather, it is also difficult for trees to survive in regions that are exceedingly dry. In this weather, the plants have to work harder to get water from the soil and in the process, they might suck in tiny pockets of air from the surrounding tissues which would lead to their destruction. Therefore, it is to cope with such severe weather, both extremely dry and/or cold, that the deciduous trees shed their leaves.

To survive in the environment as it becomes hostile, trees initiate abscission, the process of separation of leaves, naturally. Hormones are produced in the terminal buds, the tip of the stem that connects to the leaf. This halts the production of chlorophyll and enables the underlying yellow-orange pigments to shine through, making the trees look like a beautiful painting! The trees also pull out the moisture and other nutrients from leaves, while the xylem and the phloem which carry water and food, respectively are closed off. A layer of cells, termed an abscission layer then grows, cutting the connection between the leaf and the tree. The tree as a result then becomes dormant, similar to hibernation in animals, and the colourful leaves then become redundant and are dismantled.

Thus, by going leafless, trees conserve energy and moisture while also ensuring that all the valuable nutrients which were laboriously extracted from the soil to build the leaves earlier are absorbed and stored in twigs and branches until it is time for renewal. The exquisite gold and russet displays help deciduous trees recover as much as 50 percent of nitrogen and phosphorus from the old leaves. It would be right to say that such trees are perhaps the world’s prettiest recycling plants.

How beautifully nature has provided for creation, sustenance, self-preservation and recycling of leaves growing from and going back to Mother Earth. Nature indeed is truly marvellous!

Source: Indian Express, 1/07/22

UGC may allow part-time PhD for working professionals

 The University Grants Commission (UGC) is exploring the possibility of allowing part-time PhD programmes for working professionals in tune with the system followed by the IITs.

UGC vice-chairman M Jagadesh Kumar said Monday that part-time PhD programmes are also offered by prestigious universities across the world.

“In part-time PhD programmes, a University faculty member supervises a PhD student, who works on his or her subject in consultation with the supervisor, but largely independently. Such part-time PhD programmes are available in some of the best universities across the globe. Why not in our Indian universities?” Prof Kumar said. The UGC had in March notified the draft UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of Ph.D. Degree) Regulations, 2022. The provision on part-time PhD programmes are likely to find a place in the regulations which are being finalised. Prof Kumar, an alumnus of IIT Madras who was a faculty in the department of Electrical Engineering in IIT Delhi, said part-time PhD is very common in IIT system.

“Such students have to complete the course work requirements during their first or second semester by starting on campus or if they are living in the same city where the University is located, they can attend the lectures and go back to their work without being a resident on the campus. Such part-time PhD prThe eligibility conditions are likely to be the same for both full-time and part-time candidates, he said. However, part-time PhD aspirants will be have to produce an NOC from their organisations in order to be get enrolled for the doctoral programme.

The eligibility conditions are likely to be the same for both full-time and part-time candidates, he said. However, part-time PhD aspirants will be have to produce an NOC from their organisations in order to be get enrolled for the doctoral programme.

The NOC will have to specify that “facilities in the employee’s field of research are available at the place of work and and the employee will be relieved from duty, if required, to complete course work. “

Source: Indian Express, 5/07/22