CDS (I) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 75 of 120

Correct — C, The President of India is elected by an electoral college consisting of all Members of Parliament and all Members of all State Legislatures. Article 54 says something narrower on both counts: the President is elected by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States, with an Explanation adding the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union territory of Puducherry. Two exclusions follow. Nominated members do not vote, whether they are the twelve nominated to the Rajya Sabha or nominated members of an Assembly, so all Members of Parliament is wrong. And a State Legislature can include a Legislative Council, whose members have no part in a presidential election, so all Members of all State Legislatures is wrong as well. That double overstatement is what makes this the statement that is not correct; the other three restate their Articles faithfully.

• (a)The executive powers of the Union shall be vested in the President of India. — Correct, and taken from Article 53(1) — the executive power of the Union is vested in the President and is exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with the Constitution.
• (b)Parliament, by law, can confer functions on authorities other than the President of India. — Correct as well, and often doubted. Article 53(1) carries a proviso saying that nothing in the Article prevents Parliament from conferring functions by law on authorities other than the President.
• (d)A person, having held office as the President, shall be eligible for election to that office for the second term. — Correct. Article 57 provides that a person who holds or has held office as President is, subject to the other provisions of the Constitution, eligible for re-election to that office — India places no two-term ceiling of the American kind.

The President is elected indirectly, by a college weighted so that the Union and the States carry equal total value and so that States count in proportion to population. Each MLA's vote is worth the State's population divided by the number of elective Assembly seats, divided again by a thousand; each MP's vote is worth the total value of all MLA votes divided by the number of elected MPs. Voting is by proportional representation with a single transferable vote and by secret ballot, and the winner must cross a quota rather than merely lead the field.

Every option here is a near-quotation, and the false one is made false by an extra word rather than by a wrong idea. All is that word, twice. The habit worth building is to test each universal quantifier in a constitutional statement — all, every, only, never — because that is where a paraphrase usually breaks. Two exclusions carry most of the marks on this topic and are worth memorising as a pair: nominated members are out, and Legislative Councils are out. A third point sometimes tested is that the population figures used to weight the votes are still those of the 1971 Census, frozen there until the first census after 2026 under the Eighty-fourth Amendment.

• Article 54: the electoral college consists of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States.
• The Explanation to Article 54 brings in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union territory of Puducherry.
• Nominated members of either House and of any Assembly do not vote; members of State Legislative Councils do not vote.
• Article 55 sets the weighting, using the population figures of the 1971 Census until the first census after 2026.
• Article 57 allows a former President to be re-elected; there is no limit on the number of terms.

• Including nominated members of Parliament or of an Assembly in the electoral college.
• Including members of State Legislative Councils; only Assemblies count.
• Assuming a President cannot be re-elected; Article 57 says the opposite.

As a not-correct statement item on the office of President, or as a direct question on who is and is not in the electoral college.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following does NOT form part of the electoral college for the election of the President of India?

  • (a)Elected members of the Lok Sabha
  • (b)Elected members of the Rajya Sabha
  • (c)Elected members of State Legislative Councils
  • (d)Elected members of the Legislative Assembly of Puducherry

  Answer(c) Elected members of State Legislative Councils — Article 54 counts only the Legislative Assemblies.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The value of the vote of a Member of a State Legislative Assembly in a presidential election is calculated using the population figures of which census?

  • (a)1951
  • (b)1971
  • (c)2001
  • (d)2011

  Answer(b) 1971 — frozen there by the Eighty-fourth Amendment until the first census taken after 2026.