C.P. Radhakrishnan takes oath as 15th Vice President of India

• Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan was sworn in as the 15th Vice President of India on September 12.

• President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to the 67-year-old Radhakrishnan at a brief ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

• Radhakrishanan won the vice presidential election on September 9, defeating the joint opposition nominee B. Sudershan Reddy by a margin of 152 votes.

• The election was necessitated due to the sudden resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21 over health issues.

Who is C.P. Radhakrishnan?

• Born on October 20, 1957, at Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu, Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan has a Bachelor’s degree in business administration.

• Starting as an RSS swayamsevak at the age of 16, he became a state executive committee member of the Bharatiya Janasangh in 1974.

• In 1996, Radhakrishnan was appointed secretary of the BJP in Tamil Nadu. 

• He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from Coimbatore in 1998. He was re-elected in 1999.

• During his tenure as an MP, he served as the chairman and member of various parliamentary committees.

• Between 2004 and 2007, Radhakrishnan served as the Tamil Nadu BJP president.

• In 2004, he addressed the UN General Assembly as part of the Parliamentary Delegation.  

• From 2020 to 2022, he was the all-India in-charge of the BJP for Kerala.

• An avid sportsperson, Radhakrishnan was a college champion in table tennis and a long-distance runner. He also enjoys cricket and volleyball. 

• He was made the Jharkhand Governor in February 2023 and then shifted to Maharashtra in 2024.

• He was sworn in as the Governor of Maharashtra on July 31, 2024. Prior to this, he served as the governor of Jharkhand for nearly one-and-a-half years.

• While serving as Jharkhand Governor, he was also given additional charge as the Governor of Telangana and the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.

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.

Former Vice Presidents of India

• Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan - May 13, 1952 to May 12, 1962

• Dr.Zakir Hussain - May 13, 1962 to May 12, 1967

• V.V. Giri - May 13, 1967 to May 3, 1969

• Gopal Swarup Pathak - August 31, 1969 to August 30, 1974

• B.D.Jatti - August 31, 1974 to August 30, 1979

• M. Hidayatullah - August 31, 1979 to August 30, 1984

• R. Venkataraman - August 31, 1984 to July 24, 1987

• Shanker Dayal Sharma - September 3, 1987 to July 24, 1992

• K.R. Narayanan - August 21, 1992 to July 24, 1997

• Krishan Kant - August 21, 1997 to July 27, 2002

• Bhairon Singh Shekhawat - August 19, 2002 to July 21, 2007

• M. Hamid Ansari - August 11, 2007 to August 10, 2017

• M. Venkaiah Naidu - August 11, 2017 to August 10, 2022.

• Jagdeep Dhankhar - August 11, 2022 to July 21, 2025.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)