CDS (I) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 79 of 120

Correct — A, He is not eligible for re-election. Nothing in the Constitution bars a Vice-President from a second term, and the office has in fact been held twice by the same person — Mohammad Hamid Ansari served from August 2007 to August 2017. The other three statements come straight from the text. Article 66(3)(b) requires that a person have completed the age of thirty-five years to be eligible. Article 66(1) provides that the Vice-President is elected by members of an electoral college consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament, by proportional representation through the single transferable vote and by secret ballot. Article 67 fixes the term at five years from the date of entering office.

• (b)He must not be less than 35 years of age. — Correct — Article 66(3)(b) sets thirty-five as the minimum age, the same as for the President and higher than the twenty-five required for the Lok Sabha.
• (c)He is elected by members of an electoral college consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament. — Correct, and note how narrow the electoral college is: only the members of the two Houses of Parliament, both elected and nominated. State legislators take part in the Presidential election but not in this one.
• (d)His term of office is five years. — Correct — Article 67 gives a term of five years, though the Vice-President continues in office until a successor enters upon it, and may resign to the President or be removed.

Article 63 creates the office and Article 64 makes the Vice-President ex officio Chairman of the Council of States, a post he must give up on becoming President or while acting as President. He is not a member of the House he presides over: Article 66(2) provides that a sitting member of either House of Parliament or of a State legislature who is elected Vice-President is deemed to have vacated that seat on the day he enters office. Removal is by a resolution of the Council of States passed by a majority of all its then members and agreed to by the House of the People, with fourteen days' notice.

Three of the four statements can be verified against the text in seconds, so the item really turns on whether a candidate has ever been told that the office may be held twice. There is a small historical wrinkle worth knowing about statement (c): until the 11th Amendment in 1961 the electoral college met at a joint sitting of the two Houses, and the amendment removed that requirement, so the description in the option matches the Constitution as it now stands. A second contrast helps with statement (c) as well — the Vice-Presidential electoral college is only Parliament, while the Presidential one adds the elected members of the State and Union territory Assemblies.

• Article 66(1) — the Vice-President is elected by an electoral college of the members of both Houses of Parliament, by proportional representation with a single transferable vote and by secret ballot.
• Article 66(3) — a candidate must be a citizen of India, have completed thirty-five years of age, and be qualified for election to the Council of States.
• Article 67 — the term of office is five years, and the holder continues until a successor enters office.
• Article 64 — the Vice-President is ex officio Chairman of the Council of States but not a member of it.
• There is no bar on re-election; Mohammad Hamid Ansari held the office from 2007 to 2017.

• Assuming a bar on re-election because none of the recent holders sought one; the Constitution allows it.
• Adding State legislators to the Vice-Presidential electoral college; they vote only in the Presidential election.
• Treating the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha as a member of that House; Article 66(2) makes him vacate any seat he held.

As a not-correct statements item on the office, or as a comparison question setting the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections side by side.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The electoral college for the election of the Vice-President of India consists of

  • (a)elected members of both Houses of Parliament only
  • (b)members of both Houses of Parliament
  • (c)members of Parliament and elected members of State Legislative Assemblies
  • (d)members of the Council of States only

  Answer(b) members of both Houses of Parliament — elected and nominated alike, under Article 66(1).

• practice — not a real PYQ

  A resolution for the removal of the Vice-President of India can be moved only in

  • (a)the House of the People
  • (b)the Council of States
  • (c)either House
  • (d)a joint sitting of both Houses

  Answer(b) the Council of States — it must then be agreed to by the House of the People.