President of India: Powers, Election and Full List
Gajendra Singh Godara
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Current President of India: Droupadi Murmu, fifteenth holder of the head of state, inaugurated on July 25, 2022.
Article 52 creates the presidential institution; Article 53 entrusts it with the executive power of the Union.
Indirect election through an electoral college regulated by article 54, with a single transferable vote system.
Victory requires a specific electoral quota: half the total value of valid votes plus one, not a simple majority.
Term of office: five years, with no legal limit for re-election according to article 57.
No President of India has ever been impeached under Article 61.
Droupadi Murmu is the President of India. She was sworn in on July 25, 2022 as the fifteenth president of the country, and her official term extends until July 24, 2027.
Those seeking the name of the President of India or the official designation of the Rashtrapati of India will find the institutional answer here. In Hindi, the head of state is called Rashtrapati, and the official residence is the Rashtrapati Bhavan palace in New Delhi.
Historical milestones of your choice:
First figure of tribal origin to reach the Presidency, belonging to the Santhal people.
Second woman to hold the position of Head of State, preceded only by Pratibha Patil.
First person to become President born after Independence of 1947.
The youngest president to assume office, at 64 years old at the time of her inauguration.
First person from the state of Odisha to assume the head of state.
Prior to her national election, she served as the ninth governor of Jharkhand from 2015 to 2021; she previously held ministerial positions in the Odisha state government and at the municipal level.
She was born on June 20, 1958 in the village of Uparbeda, in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha.
A necessary chronological correction. Numerous sources mistakenly indicate July 21, 2022 as the start date of his term.
On that day, only the election results were announced. His formal inauguration took place on July 25, 2022, when the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
NV Ramana, administered the oath of office, at which point his constitutional term began.
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Appearance | Institutional Detail |
Constitutional Basis | Article 52 |
Current holder | Droupadi Murmu, fifteenth president |
In office since | July 25, 2022 |
End of term | July 24, 2027 |
Hindi designation | Rashtrapati |
Official Residence | Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi |
Duration of the period | Five years (Article 56) |
Re-election | Permitted without term limits (Article 57) |
Minimum age required | 35 years old (article 58) |
Authority administering the oath | Chief Justice of India (Article 60) |
Cessation Mechanism | Impeachment for violation of the Constitution (Article 61) |
Electoral body | Election Commission of India |
Resolution of disputes | Exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (Article 71) |
The institution of the presidency is enshrined in Part V, Chapter I of the Indian Constitution. Civil service examinations frequently ask about this exact numbering.
Article | Mandatory content |
52 | Existence of the figure of the President of India |
53 | Ownership of the executive power of the Union in the Presidency |
54 | Composition of the electoral college |
55 | Voting procedure: proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote |
56 | Term of office set at five years |
57 | Right and conditions for re-election |
58 | Eligibility requirements for nominations |
59 | Incompatibilities and conditions inherent to the exercise of the position |
60 | Formal formula of oath or promise |
61 | Procedure for impeachment proceedings |
62 | Deadlines for calling elections in the event of temporary or permanent vacancies |
The key distinction regarding Article 53. While formal executive power resides in the Presidency, Article 74 mandates the existence of a Council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister, whose function is to assist and advise the Head of State. The Presidency is obliged to act in accordance with this advice.
This binding nature was not so rigidly present in the original 1950 wording. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment (1976) turned the ministerial opinion into a binding mandate; two years later, the 44th Constitutional Amendment (1978) introduced a decisive safeguard: it empowered the Presidency to return the agreement to the Cabinet once for review, although if the Cabinet ratifies it, the President must comply without delay.
Therefore, the president acts as a constitutional head of state, not as a direct executive ruler. The actual exceptions where he retains discretionary power are detailed later.
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Formal qualifications according to Article 58. All applications must meet the following conditions:
Possess Indian nationality.
Must be at least 35 years old.
Meet the requirements to be elected deputy of the Lok Sabha.
Not to hold any paid public office (office of profit) dependent on the central government, the states or local administrations.
Operational requirements for nomination, regulated by the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act of 1952: the proposal requires the explicit support of 50 proposers and 50 seconders, all of them accredited electors of the electoral college, along with a bond deposit of 15,000 rupees.
Conditions stipulated by Article 59. The President may not belong to either chamber of the national Parliament or to the state legislative assemblies; if they hold a seat at the time of their proclamation, it is considered vacant by operation of law.
Furthermore, their emoluments and prerogatives may not be reduced during their term of office.
Formal oath according to Article 60: is administered by the Chief Justice of India, or failing that, the most senior judge available in that court.
This procedure encompasses the highest technical rigor of the institutional curriculum and constitutes a subject that is systematically evaluated.
Composition of the electoral college (article 54)
Voting members | Excluded members |
Elected members of the Lok Sabha | Appointed members of either chamber |
Elected members of the Rajya Sabha | Appointed members of state legislative assemblies |
Elected members of the legislative assemblies of all states | Members of the state Legislative Councils (upper houses) |
Elected members of the assemblies of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and Puducherry | Members of assemblies of other Union Territories |
Delhi and Puducherry were incorporated into this electoral body by virtue of the 70th Constitutional Amendment of 1992. Previously, voting was the exclusive right of the federated states.
Two frequently examined exclusions. Appointed members of parliament lack the right to vote because they are not directly elected.
The same impediment applies to members of state legislative councils: the constituent assembly limited suffrage to representatives elected by direct popular vote.
Weighting of the value of the votes
Suffrage does not follow the principle of one person, one vote. Each vote cast carries a numerical value derived from specific mathematical formulas.
Value of a regional deputy's vote (MLA): State population (1971 Census) ÷ Number of elected regional deputies ÷ 1,000
Value of a national parliamentarian's (MP) vote: Total sum of the vote value of all Indian state MPs ÷ Total number of MPs elected in both houses
Why does it remain anchored to the 1971 Census? The 42nd Amendment to the Constitution froze the census reference to the 1971 data, a measure that the 84th Amendment to the Constitution in 2001 extended until the publication of the first census after 2026.
The historical purpose was to avoid disproportionately affecting the representation of those southern states that implemented effective population control policies. Conversely, the current value of the vote is far removed from the living population reality, the central focus of the contemporary debate on territorial boundaries.
Figures recorded in the 2022 election:
Electoral magnitude | Weighted value |
Total value of the vote of the regional deputies (MLA) | 543,231 |
Total value of the vote of the national parliamentarians (MP) | 543,200 |
Total value of the electoral college | 1,086,431 |
Individual value of a national parliamentarian's (MP) vote | 700 |
The vote of each deputy or senator had reached a value of 708 points in 2017. It fell to 700 in 2022 because Jammu and Kashmir lacked a functioning legislative assembly at that time, which removed its representatives from the apportionment equation.
Victory requires an electoral quota, not just a simple majority
Many textbooks mistakenly claim that whoever obtains a simple majority of votes wins. The constitutional mechanism works differently.
Voting is conducted via a single transferable ballot with order of preference, under strict secrecy. To be proclaimed, a candidacy must reach a predetermined electoral quota.
Electoral quota = (Total value of valid votes cast ÷ 2) + 1
If no candidate reaches the quota with first preference votes, the one with the least support is eliminated and their second preferences are transferred, iterating the process until a candidate surpasses the threshold.
An unrepeatable historical precedent. In the 1969 elections, VV Giri did not reach the quota in the initial count and obtained the presidency after counting the second preferences against Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, an outcome brought about by the appeal to the vote of conscience in the midst of an internal fracture of the Congress Party.
The legal unknown facing 2027
Jammu and Kashmir established its legislative assembly in 2024. Will its regional deputies be able to cast their votes in the 2027 presidential elections?
Under the current state of the legislation, the answer is no. Article 54 expressly mentions the federated states, Delhi, and Puducherry. Jammu and Kashmir has the status of a Union Territory but is not included in the text.
Facilitating its participation requires a constitutional amendment, passed by a two-thirds qualified majority in Parliament and ratified by more than half of the state parliaments.
The Election Commission of India, when asked about this through a Freedom of Information (FHI) request, simply stated the literal wording of Article 54.
Unless there is prior constitutional reform, the 2027 electorate will repeat the structure of 2022.
This issue is worth following closely: it encapsulates the exact profile of the analytical questions in the Prelims phase.
Functional scope | Core competencies | Articles |
Executives | Appoints the Prime Minister, Ministers, Governors, the President of the Supreme Court and Senior Magistrates, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the Attorney General, the members of the electoral body, and the President of the UPSC | 53, 75, 76, 155, 124 |
Legislative | Convenes sessions, suspends and dissolves Parliament; addresses messages to the chambers; appoints members of Parliament; grants or denies sanction to bills | 85, 86, 87, 111 |
Financial | No bill of a fiscal nature is processed without its prior recommendation; it provides for the presentation of the General Budget; it constitutes the Finance Committee | 110, 112, 280 |
Judicial | Grants pardons, suspensions, mitigations, remissions or commutations of sentence; requests advisory opinions from the Supreme Court | 72, 143 |
Diplomatic | International treaties are signed on its behalf; it appoints and accredits diplomatic representation abroad | 53 |
Military | Exercises supreme command of the Armed Forces of the Union | 53(2) |
In Emergency | Proclaims a national state of emergency, the presidential system of government in federated states, and a financial emergency | 352, 356, 360 |
Regulatory power | Promulgates decree laws (ordinances) when the chambers are not in session | 123 |
Article 72 and the Right of Pardon. A full pardon extinguishes both the imposed sentence and the original criminal conviction. A temporary suspension postpones the execution of the sentence.
A mitigation for special reasons reduces the severity of the punishment in circumstances such as pregnancy. A remission reduces the length of the sentence without altering its legal nature. A commutation replaces the imposed sanction with a more lenient one.
The president's power of clemency extends to sentences imposed by military courts and all death sentences, a power that the Constitution denies to state governors in article 161.
Article 123 and Ordinances, the focus of constant constitutional litigation. An ordinance has the same force as an ordinary law, but it must be submitted to the legislative chambers and expires six weeks after the resumption of parliamentary sessions.
The Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case DC Wadhwa v. State of Bihar (1987) that the repeated promulgation of ordinances with the deliberate aim of circumventing legislative debate constitutes a clear violation of the Constitution.
Legislative veto powers
Type of veto | Procedural effect | Does it exist in Indian law? |
Absolute | Indefinitely retains the sanction; the initiative lapses | Yes, for extraordinary employment |
Suspensive | Returns the text for reconsideration; the sanction is mandatory if ratified by Parliament | Yes, reserved for non-fiscal projects |
Pocket Veto | Does not adopt any resolution; the Constitution does not set a deadline | Yes |
Qualified | The veto lapses only with a reinforced parliamentary majority | No |
The historical case of the pocket veto. In 1986, President Giani Zail Singh abstained from signing or returning the Indian Post Office Amendment Bill . Because Article 111 does not impose a strict deadline for signing, the bill expired without taking effect.
One imperative limitation: the Presidency cannot return financial bills (money bills) for re-examination by Parliament, since these rules are introduced in the chamber only after having obtained its mandatory prior recommendation.
Areas of effective discretion
The regulations reserve three exceptional circumstances to the discretion of the Presidency, which are central to the questions in the Mains phase:
Appointment of the prime minister when no coalition or party holds a clear majority in parliament.
Dismissal of a government that, after losing the parliamentary confidence accredited in the chamber, refuses to submit its resignation.
Early dissolution of the Lok Sabha if the Council of Ministers loses its representative majority and there is no viable alternative government.
If these situations are added to the 44th Amendment's power to demand a re-examination of decisions and the use of the pocket veto, the real scope of the president's autonomous judgment is delimited.
It constitutes the only legal way to remove a leader from office before the end of their five-year term.
Procedural phase | Regulatory requirement |
Formal cause | Violation of the Constitution, a concept that the constitutional text avoids expressly defining |
Initiative | It can be initiated in either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha |
Submission of the request | Signature of at least one-quarter of the members of the proposing chamber, with 14 days' notice |
Approval in the originating chamber | Special majority: two-thirds of the total composition of the chamber |
Investigative phase | The opposing chamber investigates the allegations; the Presidency has the right to appear personally or through legal representation |
Resolution in the second chamber | Requires identical two-thirds majority of total members |
Legal effect | The president is formally removed from office the moment the second chamber validates the resolution |
Three points that raise the technical level of an answer:
The appointed members of parliament participate in the impeachment trial, despite being barred from voting in the presidential election. The election pursues a principle of territorial representation; the removal constitutes a parliamentary oversight procedure.
State assemblies are excluded from the process, even though their elected representatives are part of the body that votes in the presidential elections.
The procedure is of a quasi-judicial nature, which guarantees the head of state the constitutional right to be heard and to defend himself.
No president in the history of India has ever been impeached.
Chronological list of the holders of the position, with their most remembered institutional trait:
No. | Mandatory | Period | Institutional milestone |
1 | Dr. Rajendra Prasad | 1950-1962 | First president; only president to complete two full terms |
2 | Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 1962-1967 | Second President of India; philosopher; his birthdate is commemorated as Teachers' Day |
3 | Dr. Zakir Husain | 1967-1969 | First Muslim president; first president to die in office |
4 | VV Giri | 1969-1974 | Only president elected as an independent candidate and the only one proclaimed as the second choice |
5 | Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | 1974-1977 | Declared a state of emergency in 1975; second president to die in office |
6 | Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | 1977-1982 | Only president elected unopposed by rival candidates; the youngest until then |
7 | Giani Zail Singh | 1982-1987 | First Sikh president; exercised the pocket veto over the postal law |
8 | R. Venkataraman | 1987-1992 | He coexisted institutionally with three prime ministers during a period of parliaments without a majority |
9 | Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma | 1992-1997 | Former Vice President of the country and renowned constitutional jurist |
10 | KR Narayanan | 1997-2002 | First president of Dalit origin; returned the recommendation on Article 356 to the government |
11 | Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam | 2002-2007 | Prestigious scientist; popularly remembered as the People's President |
12 | Pratibha Patil | 2007-2012 | First woman to become President of India |
13 | Pranab Mukherjee | 2012-2017 | Experienced Finance Minister; awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2019 |
14 | Ram Nath Kovind | 2017-2022 | Second president from the Dalit community |
15 | Droupadi Murmu | 2022-present | First female president of tribal origin; second woman to hold the head of state position |
Vacancy and interim presidency
The vacancy in the head of state occurs due to regular expiration of the term, voluntary resignation, removal through political trial, death or judicial annulment of the election by the Supreme Court.
Upon the ordinary expiration of the term, the election of the successor must be held before the five-year period expires, according to Article 62.
The person holding the office remains in their position until the elected successor takes office.
In the event of a sudden and unforeseen vacancy, elections must be called within a peremptory period of six months. The elected person begins a new term of five full years, not the remaining time of the previous term.
The order of precedence for the interim appointment places the Vice-Presidency first, followed by the Chief Justice of India and, failing that, by the most senior judge of that high court.
Interim President | Year | Institutional Context |
VV Giri | 1969 | As vice president, after the death of Zakir Husain |
M. Hidayatullah | 1969 | As Chief Justice, upon Giri's resignation to run for office |
BD Jatti | 1977 | As vice president, following the death of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed |
The figure of M. Hidayatullah is a subject of regular examination. He is the only person to have held the three highest offices in the State throughout his career: Chief Justice, Acting President, and Vice President of India.
Consult our monograph on the Vice President of India to delve deeper into this institution and its current holder.
How UPSC evaluates the presidential institution
This subject falls under the governance and political system block of the GS Paper II syllabus, and is among the topics with the highest frequency of appearance in public calls for applications.
The Prelims phase assesses factual rigor: correspondence of articles, exact composition of the electorate, veto modalities operative in India, qualified majorities required for removal, and the scope of amendments on Articles 54 and 74.
Real example taken from Prelims 2023:
Consider the following statements regarding the Indian presidential election:
Appointed members of either house of Parliament or state legislative assemblies are also eligible to serve in the Electoral College.
The greater the number of elected seats in a state's Assembly, the greater the value of each vote of each deputy from that state.
The value of each regional deputy's vote in Puducherry is greater than that of a deputy in Arunachal Pradesh.
Statement 1 is incorrect: the right to vote belongs exclusively to elected members.
Statement 2 is false: the mathematical relationship is inverse, since the census population is divided by the number of seats.
Statement 3 is correct, given that the ratio between population and number of representatives in Puducherry yields a higher quotient.
The second proposition was the exam's trap. An increase in regional seats generates a lower weighted value for each individual vote, not a higher one.
The Mains phase demands critical and argumentative capacity: discerning whether the president operates as a mere formal figure or as an effective custodian of the Constitution, examining the limits of his discretion and evaluating the institutional risks derived from the abusive use of articles 356 and 123.
Hone your answers with our writing practice guide for Mains and review past exam papers in the previous year questions section. For an article-by-article breakdown of the Magna Carta, see the important articles of the Indian Constitution.
Frequently asked question (FAQs)
Who is currently the President of India?
Who was the second president in the history of India?
What mechanism governs the election of the Indian President?
Can the president be removed before the end of his term?
What is a pocket veto and when was it implemented in India?
The head of state in India is often categorized as a purely ceremonial office lacking substantive power. This reductionist view overlooks the inner workings of the parliamentary system.
The vast majority of presidential prerogatives are exercised by ministerial mandate, a natural premise of a parliamentary democracy. However, the powers reserved to the institution by the Constitution come into force when the institutional framework is threatened: entrusting the formation of a government to divided assemblies, demanding a considered reconsideration of a controversial measure, or blocking a legally questionable law through silence. These interventions are exceptional, but decisive.
In terms of exam preparation, three aspects guarantee mastery of the subject: the accurate identification of the articles (from 52 to 62, along with 72, 74, 111, 123 and 352); the understanding of the electoral algorithm, assimilating that the proclamation requires reaching a strict mathematical quota and not a mere majority percentage; and the detailed knowledge of the presidential list, identifying the differentiating fact that distinguishes each president in the institutional history of the country.
The current incumbent's background information is from presidentofindia.gov.in. The constitutional text follows the official text of the Constitution of India and canonical works of doctrine such as M. Laxmikanth's Indian Polity. The weighted values of the 2022 votes are from the records of the Election Commission of India compiled by PRS Legislative Research. It is always advisable to verify the incumbent's status prior to each election, bearing in mind the 2027 election.
Gajendra Singh Godara
Ex-UPSC Aspirant | Exam Preparation Expert
Gajendra Singh Godara is an IIT Bombay graduate and a UPSC aspirant with 4 attempts, including multiple Prelims and Mains appearances. He specializes in Polity, Modern History, International Relations, and Economy. At PadhAI, Gajendra leverages his firsthand exam experience to simplify complex concepts, creating high-efficiency study materials that help aspirants save time and stay focused.
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