• With Jagdeep Dhankhar quitting as the Vice President, the election to appoint his successor will have to be held “as soon as possible”. 

• According to Article 68(2) of the Constitution, an election to fill a vacancy in the office of the Vice President occurring due to his death, resignation or removal, or otherwise will be held “as soon as possible” after the occurrence of the vacancy.

• The person elected to fill the vacancy will be entitled to hold office “for the full term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office”.

Vice President’s constitutional position

• The Vice President of India is the second highest constitutional office in the country. 

• He serves for a five-year term, but can continue to be in office, irrespective of the expiry of the term, until the successor assumes office.

• The Constitution is silent on who performs the duties of the Vice President, when a vacancy occurs in the office of the Vice President of India, before the expiry of his term, or when the Vice President acts as the President of India. 

• The only provision in the Constitution is with regard to the Vice President’s function as the Chairperson of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), which is performed, during the period of such vacancy, by the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, or any other member of the Rajya Sabha authorised by the President of India.

• The Vice President may resign his office by submitting his resignation to the President of India. 

• The resignation becomes effective from the day it is accepted.

Powers and Functions

The functions of Vice-President are two-fold:

• He acts as the ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha. In this capacity, his powers and functions are similar to those of the Speaker of Lok Sabha. In this respect, he resembles the American Vice-President who also acts as the Chairman of the Senate – the Upper House of the American legislature.

• He acts as President when a vacancy occurs in the office of the President due to his resignation, removal, death or otherwise. He can act as President only for a maximum period of six months within which a new President has to be elected. 

• Further, when the sitting President is unable to discharge his functions due to absence, illness or any other cause, the Vice President discharges his functions until the President resumes his office. 

• While acting as President or discharging the functions of President, the Vice President does not perform the duties of the office of the chairman of Rajya Sabha. During this period, those duties are performed by the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha.

• The Vice President can be removed from office by a resolution of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), passed by a majority of its members at that time and agreed to by the House of the People (Lok Sabha). A resolution for this purpose may be moved only after a notice of at least a minimum of 14 days has been given of such an intention.

To be eligible for election as Vice President, a person: 

i) Should be a citizen of India.

ii) Should have completed 35 years of age.

iii) Should be qualified for election as a member of the Rajya Sabha.

iv) Should not hold any office of profit under the Union government or any state government or any local authority or any other public authority.

• A nomination paper of a candidate has to be subscribed by at least 20 electors as proposers and by at least other 20 electors as seconders. An elector can subscribe to only one nomination paper of a candidate as either a proposer or a seconder.

• A candidate can file a maximum of four nomination papers. The security deposit for the election is Rs 15,000.

• Election to the office of Vice President of India is governed by the provisions contained in Articles 64 to 68 of the Constitution of India and the Presidential and Vice Presidential Elections Act, 1952 and the Rules made thereunder.

• Under Article 324 of the Constitution of India, the authority to conduct

elections to the Office of Vice President is vested in the Election Commission of India.

The electoral college

• As per Article 66 of the Constitution of India, the Vice President is elected by the members of the 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. 

The voting process

• Article 66(1) of the Constitution provides that the election 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.

• In this system, 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.

• Parties cannot issue whip to its MPs in the matter of voting.

• Unlike the presidential poll where voting takes place in multiple locations as elected MLAs, not nominated, also form part of the electoral college, in the vice presidential election, voting takes place in Parliament House.

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