How India chooses its head of state.

• Author: Agnihotri, V.K.

On July 19, 2012, India, the world's largest democracy, elected its 13th President, Pranab Mukherjee. This article outlines the history of the Indian presidency and the powers of the office. It explains the indirect election process whereby members of the national and state legislatures choose a Head of State.

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The Office of the President is a symbol of the Indian Republic. The office has been a source of advice, counseling and guidance to the Governments of the day, especially in times of difficulty and crises. Such a role is particularly crucial in a country like India with its vast size, large populace and enormous diversities.

Brief Description of the Indian Political System

The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949 and came into force on January 26, 1950. The parliamentary form of government is federal in structure with unitary features. There are now 28 States and seven Union Territories. The Union executive consists of the President, Vice-President and Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as head to aid and advise the President. The Constitution makes it clear that the real executive power vests in the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as head. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to the House of the People (Lok Sabha).

Parliament consists of the President and two Houses, the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha). Rajya Sabha comprises 245 Members, of which 233 represent the States and Union Territories and 12 are nominated by the President from amongst persons having special knowledge or practical experience in such matters as literature, science, art and social service. Elections to the Rajya Sabha are indirect. Members are chosen by elected Members of legislative assemblies of the States in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. The Rajya Sabha is not subject to dissolution and one-third of its Members retire biennially.

The Lok Sabha is composed of representatives chosen by direct election on the basis of adult suffrage. It comprises 545 Members, of which 530 are directly elected from the States and 13 from Union Territories, while two members of the Anglo-Indian community are nominated by the President. The term of the Lok Sabha, unless dissolved earlier, is five years. However, while a Proclamation of Emergency is in operation, this period may be extended by Parliament for a period not exceeding one year at a time and not extending in any case, beyond a period of six months after the Proclamation has ceased to operate.

The Constitution distributes legislative powers between Parliament and state legislatures and provides for vesting of residual powers in the Parliament. The distribution of powers emphasizes, in many ways, the general predominance of Parliament. Parliament has also been vested with the power to impeach the President and to remove the Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, the Chief Election Commissioner and the Comptroller and Auditor-General, in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Constitution. Besides the power to legislate, Parliament has also been vested with the power to initiate amendment of the Constitution.

The superintendence, direction and preparation of electoral rolls for elections to Parliament and State Legislatures and elections to the offices of the President and the Vice-President are vested in the Election Commission of India. The independence of the Election Commission is ensured by a specific provision under article 324(5) of the Constitution. The Election Commission at regular intervals, publishes notification specifying the names of recognized national and state parties. See Table on the following page for a current list of recognized national and state parties.

In the 2009 General Elections to the Lok Sabha, a total of 417 million people voted out of a total electorate of about 716 million in about 834,000 polling stations spread across widely varying geographic and climatic zones. The Election Commission employed almost 4.6 million people to conduct the election. A vast number of civilian police and security forces were deployed to ensure that the elections were carried out peacefully. Polling stations were located in the snow-clad mountains in the Himalayas, the deserts of the Rajasthan and in sparsely populated islands in the Indian Ocean.

Historical Context

The framers of the Constitution pondered two challenging issues, namely, the nature of the executive and its relation to the legislature. While introducing the Draft Constitution on November 4, 1948, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee, stated:

A student of Constitutional Law, if a copy of a Constitution is placed in his hands, is sure to ask two questions. Firstly what is the form of Government that is envisaged in the Constitution; and secondly what is the form of the Constitution? For these are the two crucial matters which every Constitution has to deal with. (1) The decision of the Constituent Assembly regarding the form of government in India was considerably influenced by the political background of the country and the practices and traditions evolved during the British rule. The Central Government in India was carried on by the Governor-General in Council, consisting of the Governor-General and members of his Executive Council. All of them were appointed by the Crown and they functioned under the overall control and compliance of the Secretary of State, who was responsible to the British Parliament. In the series of Acts enacted by the British Parliament, such as the Act for the Good Government of India of 1858, the Government of India Act of 1919 and of 1935, the underlying theme remained the same. The structure of government continued to be unitary and centralized with the Governor-General in Council as the linchpin of the whole constitutional edifice. The legislative assemblies, both at the centre and the provinces, were granted very limited powers. The Governor-General at the centre and the Governors in the provinces commanded discretionary powers, such as power to veto legislation, regulation of matters relating to defence, external affairs, etc. The Governor-General had independent powers of legislation, concurrently with those of the legislature, apart from his power to promulgate Ordinances during the recess of the legislature.

With the Indian Independence Act, 1947, the suzerainty of the British Crown over the Indian States lapsed, and the Governor-General was made the constitutional head, who would act on the advice of a Council of Ministers having the confidence of the Legislature. The Drafting Committee entrusted with the task of preparing a Constitution in accordance with the decisions of the Constituent Assembly, was appointed by a Resolution passed by the Constituent Assembly on August 29, 1947. The Draft Constitution was presented to the Constituent Assembly on November 4, 1948 and after discussions and consideration of various clauses, the Constitution was passed. The Constituent Assembly accomplished the daunting task of framing the Constitution in less than three years. The Constitution was drawn from a number of sources and reflects an amalgamation of various principles and practices of governance.

The political class in India had, by this time, become accustomed to the functioning of some semblance of parliamentary government. At the time of discussion on the new Constitution, opinion was overwhelmingly in favour of adopting an executive responsible to the Legislature in accordance with the British tradition. (2) However, conferment of certain special...