• The Election Commission appointed Rajya Sabha Secretary General P.C. Mody as the returning officer for the election to the Office of the Vice President.

• The election was necessitated after Jagdeep Dhankhar’s resignation as Vice President on July 21, citing health issues.

• The Election Commission said that in consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice and with the consent of the deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha, it has appointed Mody as the returning officer for the Vice Presidential election, 2025.

• The EC has also appointed Garima Jain, Joint Secretary, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, and Vijay Kumar, Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, as assistant returning officers during the course of the election.

• 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”.

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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