Vice-President: Articles 63-71

The Vice-President is the second-highest constitutional office in India, and Laxmikanth's own chapter builds it almost entirely by contrast with the President: the two offices share the same five-year term and the same broad election machinery in outline, but nearly every procedural detail, who elects, who removes, what majority is needed, before whom the oath is taken, differs in a specific, testable way. This chapter has zero questions in the bank so far, real content debt rather than evidence the office is untested; the pattern below is exactly the shape a statement-based question on this ground would take.

Election: Parliament alone, not the states

Article 66(1) elects the Vice-President by an electoral college consisting of the members of both Houses of Parliament, by proportional representation through the single transferable vote, by secret ballot. This is the single most commonly confused fact about the office: the President's own electoral college (Article 54) additionally includes the elected members of every state's Legislative Assembly, but the Vice-President's does not. State legislators have no vote in a Vice-Presidential election at all. The electoral college itself has also changed once by amendment: originally a joint sitting of both Houses assembled together, the Constitution (Eleventh Amendment) Act, 1961 removed the requirement that the two Houses actually sit together for the vote, so members of both Houses now vote as one college without needing to convene jointly.

Eligibility under Article 66(3) requires citizenship of India, a minimum age of 35, and qualification for election to the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) specifically, not the House of the People. Article 66(4) bars anyone holding an office of profit under the Union, a state, or a local authority, with the same explanation clause used for the President: being President, Vice-President, a Governor, or a Union or state Minister is not itself treated as holding an office of profit for this purpose. Article 66(2) requires a sitting MP or state legislator who is elected Vice-President to vacate their existing seat on entering office.

Removal: the Rajya Sabha alone, by an effective majority, with no special majority in the Lok Sabha

This is the chapter's sharpest contrast with the President, and the one most likely to be tested as a trap. The President's removal (Article 61) is impeachment: the charge can be preferred by either House, investigated by the other, and needs a two-thirds majority of the total membership of each House in turn. The Vice-President's removal (Article 67, proviso (b)) works differently in every one of these respects: a resolution can be moved only in the Rajya Sabha, needs to be passed there by a majority of all the then members (an effective majority of the House's actual current strength, not a fixed two-thirds), and then only needs to be agreed to by the Lok Sabha, with no majority threshold specified for that agreement, so an ordinary majority suffices there. At least fourteen days' notice of the intention to move the resolution is required, the same fourteen-day notice period Article 61 sets for a presidential impeachment resolution, but nothing else about the two procedures matches. A statement asserting that the Vice-President is impeached "the same way as the President" or that a two-thirds majority is needed in the Rajya Sabha to remove the Vice-President is testing exactly this distinction.

A related, easily missed procedural detail: while a removal resolution against the Vice-President is under consideration in the Rajya Sabha, Article 92 bars him from presiding over that sitting (in his capacity as the House's own Chairman) even though he remains present, though he retains the right to speak and otherwise take part in the proceedings; what he loses entirely is the right to vote on that resolution or on any other matter during those proceedings, a right he would ordinarily hold only as a casting vote in case of a tie.

Beyond removal, a Vice-President may resign by writing addressed to the President (proviso (a) to Article 67), the mirror image of the President resigning to the Vice-President under Article 56. And under proviso (c), a Vice-President continues in office past the expiry of the five-year term until a successor actually enters upon office, the same continuity-of-office principle that applies to the President.

Acting as President versus discharging the President's functions: a real distinction, not two names for one thing

Article 65 gives the Vice-President two genuinely different roles depending on why the President's office needs covering, and Laxmikanth's own chapter treats conflating them as the classic trap.

• Article 65(1): if a vacancy in the office of President arises through death, resignation, removal, or otherwise, the Vice-President acts as President until a newly elected President enters office. Note Article 62(2)'s own six-month cap on how long that vacancy can run before a fresh presidential election must be held.
• Article 65(2): if the sitting President is merely unable to discharge functions owing to absence, illness, or any other cause, the Vice-President instead discharges the functions of the President, only until the President resumes duties, with the President's own office never actually falling vacant in this scenario.

Article 65(3) gives the Vice-President the full powers, immunities, emoluments and privileges of the President during either kind of coverage, and Article 60 requires whoever is acting as President or discharging presidential functions to take the President's own oath before the Chief Justice of India (or the senior-most available Supreme Court judge), distinct from the Vice-President's own oath already taken before the President under Article 69 on entering the Vice-Presidential office itself. During this period, Article 64's own proviso strips the Vice-President of the Rajya Sabha Chairmanship's duties and salary for that duration, since the office of President and the office of Rajya Sabha Chairman cannot functionally be held by the same person's active attention at once.

Ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, with no other office of profit

Article 64 makes the Vice-President the ex officio Chairman of the Council of States, the one Indian constitutional post whose holder simultaneously heads a House of Parliament without being an elected member of it. Article 64 also bars the Vice-President from holding any other office of profit, structurally the same bar Article 66(4) already applies at the point of eligibility for election. Article 69's oath is taken before the President, not before the Chief Justice, the reverse of the President's own oath (Article 60, before the Chief Justice), a pairing worth fixing precisely: President's oath before the Chief Justice; Vice-President's oath before the President.

Quick revision points

• Article 66: elected by an electoral college of both Houses of Parliament only, proportional representation, single transferable vote, secret ballot. State legislators do not vote, unlike in a Presidential election.
• The two Houses no longer need to sit jointly for this vote; that requirement was removed by the Eleventh Amendment, 1961.
• Eligibility: citizen, age 35+, qualified for Rajya Sabha election specifically (not Lok Sabha), no office of profit.
• Removal (Article 67, proviso b): resolution moved only in the Rajya Sabha, passed there by a majority of all the then members (effective majority), then merely agreed to by the Lok Sabha (no special majority specified there). Contrast with the President's impeachment (Article 61): chargeable in either House, needs a two-thirds majority of total membership in each House in turn. Both require 14 days' notice.
• While his own removal resolution is under consideration, the Vice-President cannot preside over that Rajya Sabha sitting (Article 92) but may speak; he cannot vote at all, including no casting vote, during those proceedings.
• Resigns to the President (mirroring the President resigning to the Vice-President).
• Article 65(1): acts as President on a vacancy (death/resignation/removal), until a new President is elected (within six months, per Article 62(2)). Article 65(2): merely discharges functions during the President's temporary absence/illness, with the presidency never falling vacant.
• Whoever acts as or discharges the functions of the President must take the President's oath before the Chief Justice of India (Article 60), separate from the Vice-President's own oath taken before the President (Article 69) on entering office.
• Ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Article 64); loses that role's duties and salary while acting as or discharging the President's functions.