Question

With reference to the Presidential election in India,consider the following statements:
1.The nomination paper of a candidate for Presidential election should be signed by at least 50 electors as proposers and another 50 as seconders.
2.The prescribed security deposit in the Presidential election is Rs.25000
Which of these statements is/are correct?
a)1only
b)2 only
c)Both 1 and 2
d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer 1

Hint: The President of India is the head of the state and holds the highest position in the official order of precedence of the Republic of India. However the president of India is only the nominal head and hence is not elected directly by the people. He is elected by an electoral college consisting of elected members of both the houses of parliament, elected members of state legislative assemblies and elected members of legislative assemblies of Delhi and Puducherry.

Complete Answer: A system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote is followed to conduct the Presidential election. The voting of the same happens through a secret ballot.The constitution has laid down few conditions for a candidate to be elected as the President. The person has to be an Indian citizen who is at least 35 years old. The person should be qualified to be elected to the Lok Sabha and shouldn’t hold any office of profit under the government or any other public authority.

Let us look at the statements given to us.
-Statement 1 says that the nomination paper of a candidate for Presidential election should be signed by at least 50 electors as proposers and another 50 as seconders. Before 1997, the presidential election candidate was required to have 10 proposers and 10 seconds. However the Presidential and Vice-presidential Elections Act of 1952 was amended in 1997 and now a candidate for the presidential election has to have 50 members as proposers and 50 members as seconders. This was done to discourage non-serious candidates. This statement is therefore correct.
-Statement 2 says that the prescribed security deposit in the Presidential election is Rs.25000.
Again, before 1997 the security deposit that had to be made to contest the Presidential election was just 2500 rupees. However this was changed to 15000 rupees post the amendment of 1997. This amount is forfeited if that candidate doesn’t even get one sixth of the votes polled.
Therefore this statement is incorrect as the amount of security deposit is 15000 rupees and not 25000 rupees.

Hence option (A) is the correct answer as only the first statement is correct.

Note: Now that we know who all get to vote in presidential elections, it is also important to remember who all don’t get to vote in this election. Nominated members of the Parliament, nominated members of state and Union Territories' legislative assembly and the entire legislative council of states (in case of states with bicameral legislature, do not get to vote in Presidential elections.
Also all disputes regarding the president's election are decided by the Supreme court.