After the President, the Vice-President of India is the country’s second most important authority figure. According to Article 65 of the Indian Constitution, he has the authority to make critical decisions under specific contingencies such as resignation, dismissal, death, impeachment, or the president’s inability to fulfil his/her powers.
The Vice-President of India is the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
The following qualifications are required for this position:
Indian citizen who has reached the age of 35.
He should not hold any profit-making positions in the union government, state government, public authority, or municipal authority.
Since the post’s inception in the Indian Constitution, there have been 13 Vice-Presidents.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the first Vice-President of India. He took oath at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 13 May 1952.
The list of Vice-Presidents of India from 1950 to 2021 is listed below:
| Vice – President of India | Term of office |
| Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (First Vice-President of India) | 13 May 1952 – 12 May 195713 May 1957 – 12 May 1962 |
| Zakir Hussain | 13 May 1962 – 12 May 1967 |
| V. V. Giri | 13 May 1967 – 3 May 1969 |
| Gopal Swarup Pathak | 31 August 1969 – 30 August 1974 |
| B. D. Jatti | 31 August 1974 – 30 August 1979 |
| Mohammad Hidayatullah | 31 August 1979 – 30 August 1984 |
| R. Venkataraman | 31 August 1984 – 24 July 1987 |
| Shankar Dayal Sharma | 3 September 1987 – 24 July 1992 |
| K. R. Narayanan | 21 August 1992 – 24 July 1997 |
| Krishan Kant | 21 August 1997 – 27 July 2002 |
| Bhairon Singh Shekhawat | 19 August 2002 – 21 July 2007 |
| Mohammad Hamid Ansari | 11 August 2007 – 11 August 201211 August 2012 – 11 August 2017 |
| Venkaiah Naidu | 11 August 2017 – Incumbent |
