Vice-President of India – Office (Article 63)

Vice president office in India traces its constitutional origin to a single, terse sentence in Article 63: "There shall be a Vice-President of India." Despite its brevity, this provision creates the second-highest constitutional office in the Union, standing immediately after the President in the country's order of precedence.

What Article 63 Establishes

Article 63 falls in Part V, Chapter I of the Constitution, which deals with the Union executive alongside the President. Unlike the detailed provisions for the President's election, powers and removal that surround it, Article 63 itself does no more than create the office. The substantive rules — who can be Vice-President, how the person is elected, what the term is, and what functions attach to the post — are spread across the Articles that follow it (64 to 71).

A Dual-Function Office

The Vice-President's constitutional role has two distinct strands, each governed by a separate Article:

• Under Article 64, the Vice-President is the ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and cannot hold any other office of profit while serving.
• Under Article 65, the Vice-President steps in to act as President when a vacancy arises in the President's office (through death, resignation or removal) or to discharge the President's functions when the President is temporarily unable to do so because of absence or illness.

The two roles cannot overlap: whenever the Vice-President is acting as President, the Chairman's duties of the Rajya Sabha pass instead to the Deputy Chairman.

Indian Vice-President vs American Vice-President

The office is modelled on the American Vice-Presidency but works differently in one crucial respect.

Aspect	Indian Vice-President	American Vice-President
Presiding over the upper house	Chairs the Rajya Sabha (Art. 64)	Chairs the Senate
Succession on vacancy	Only acts as President until a new President is elected — does not complete the term	Succeeds to the Presidency and serves out the remainder of the term
Duration of stand-in role	Time-bound, until a new President enters office	Becomes the substantive President

Because the Indian Vice-President never inherits the unexpired term, the office carries no independent policy mandate; it exists mainly to keep the presidential chair from ever being empty and to preserve political continuity of the State.

Why the Office Was Created

The framers placed a Vice-President in the Constitution primarily as a safeguard against an interregnum — a gap in the headship of state. Rather than leaving a vacancy to be managed ad hoc, Article 63 guarantees that a designated constitutional functionary is always available to take over presidential duties without delay.

Related Articles at a Glance

Article	Subject
63	Creation of the office of Vice-President
64	Vice-President as ex officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha
65	Vice-President acting as President / discharging President's functions
66	Election of the Vice-President
67	Term of office of the Vice-President
69	Oath or affirmation by the Vice-President
71	Disputes connected with the election of the President or Vice-President

UPSC Relevance

Prelims

• Article 63 simply creates the office; the qualifications, term and removal are dealt with in later Articles — a common prelims trap is attributing all VP-related content to Article 63 itself.
• The Vice-President's electoral college (Art. 66) differs from the President's electoral college (Art. 54) — state legislators are excluded from the former.

Mains

• Compare the constitutional design of the Vice-President's office with the American Vice-Presidency and evaluate whether the Indian model serves its intended purpose of continuity. (GS II)
• Discuss the significance of a dual-function office — presiding officer of the Rajya Sabha and standby Head of State — for the balance of power in the Union executive.

FAQ

Q1. Which Article of the Constitution creates the office of Vice-President? Article 63 — it simply states, "There shall be a Vice-President of India."

Q2. Does the Indian Vice-President automatically become President if the office of President falls vacant? No. The Vice-President only acts as President until a new President is elected under Article 65; the office does not pass to the Vice-President permanently.

Q3. Can the Vice-President perform the duties of the Rajya Sabha Chairman while acting as President? No. Article 64 bars this — during that period, the Deputy Chairman performs the Chairman's duties of the Rajya Sabha.

Q4. Is the Vice-President's office modelled on any other country's system? Yes, on the American Vice-Presidency, though the succession rule differs significantly.

Quick Revision

• Article 63: creates the office of Vice-President of India.
• Second-highest constitutional office; ranks after the President.
• Substantive rules (qualifications, election, term) are in Articles 64–71, not Article 63.
• Dual role: Chairman of Rajya Sabha (Art. 64) + stand-in for President (Art. 65).
• Unlike the US Vice-President, does not inherit the unexpired presidential term.

Sources

• The Constitution of India, Article 63 — legislative.gov.in
• The Constitution of India, Articles 64–71 — legislative.gov.in

Further Reference

For deeper reading on this topic and the wider polity syllabus, these standard works are recommended:

• M. Laxmikanth, Indian Polity (McGraw Hill) — the standard UPSC handbook.
• D.D. Basu, Introduction to the Constitution of India (LexisNexis) — authoritative constitutional-law treatment.
• The Constitution of India — Bare Act — the official text.

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