President of India
The President is the first citizen of India and the head of the Republic of India. According to Article 52 of the Indian constitution, there shall be a President of India.
Article 53 of the Indian Constitution stipulates that he shall execute all executive functions of the Union, either personally or via officers subordinate to him.
Details of the qualifications, election, and impeachment of the President of India are provided in Part V (The Union) of Chapter I (The Executive) of the Indian Constitution. Part V of the Constitution, Articles 52 to 78, deals with the Union Executive. The President of India is also the head of the country’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
There have been 14 personalities who served as Indian Presidents since the adoption of the Indian Constitution in 1950 and there have been tenures when the country was headed by an acting President. In this article, you will get to know about all the Presidents of India from 1950 to 2022.
Pranab Mukherjee, India’s 13th President, served his final term in July 2017. Despite the fact that he was eligible, he did not run for re-election. As a result, Ram Nath Kovind became the 14th Indian President, appointed by the electoral college, on July 25th, 2017.
List of Indian Presidents
| Name | Tenure | Description |
| Rajendra Prasad | 13 May 1952 – 13 May 195713 May 1957 – 13 May 1962 | He was elected twice as the president. He was also the president of the constituent assembly before being elected for this post. |
| Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan | 13 May 1962 – 13 May 1967 | Radhakrishnan was a prominent philosopher and writer. He also held the position of vice-chancellor of the Andhra University and Banaras Hindu University. |
| Zakir Hussain | 13 May 1967 – 3 May 1969 | He was the recipient of Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna. He was the shortest-serving president and passed away in office. |
| Varahagiri Venkata Giri | 3 May 1969 – 20 July 196924 August 1969 – 24 August 1974 | He was elected Vice President of India in 1967. He served as the president for a short term due to the sudden death of Zakir Hussain in office. |
| Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | 24 August 1974 – 11 February 1977 | He was the president during Emergency. He was the second president who died in office. |
| Neelam Sanjiva Reddy | 25 July 1977 – 25 July 1982 | He was the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. He became the youngest President who occupied Rashtrapati Bhavan and contested twice for the post of president. |
| Zail Singh | 25 July 1982 – 25 July 1987 | He was the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Union Home Minister |
| Ramaswamy Venkataraman | 25 July 1987 – 25 July 1992 | He is a receiver of “Tamra Patra” for his contributions to India’s freedom struggle. |
| Shankar Dayal Sharma | 25 July 1992 – 25 July 1997 | He was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and the Indian Minister for Communications. |
| Kocheril Raman Narayanan | 25 July 1997 – 25 July 2002 | He served as India’s ambassador to Thailand, Turkey, China and the United States of America. |
| Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam | 25 July 2002 – 25 July 2007 | He played a leading role in the development of India’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs. He was also a Bharat Ratna recipient. |
| Pratibha Patil | 25 July 2007 – 25 July 2012 | She was the first woman president of India. |
| Pranab Mukherjee | 25 July – 25 July 2017 | He was awarded the best Parliamentary Award in 1997. He also received Padma Vibhushan in 2008. |
| Ram Nath Kovind | 25 July 2017 – Incumbent | He served as the Governor of Bihar. |
Qualification of Indian President
President is elected by the process of proportional representation with means of a single transferable vote. President can be removed by the process of impeachment.
The qualification for the post of the President of India is given below:
- He should be an Indian Citizen
- His age should be a minimum of 35 years
- He should qualify the conditions to be elected as a member of the Lok Sabha
- He should not hold any office of profit under the central government, state government, or any public authority.
Facts about the President of India
Given below are a few facts related to the President of India and the past Presidents which have served the country.
- Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the longest-serving Indian President. He completed two tenures as the President of the country
- The shortest-serving President was the third Indian President, Zakir Hussain. He passed away while he was in his office
- Apart from the full-time Presidents mentioned in the table above, there were three interim Presidents. The three of them were: Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Mohammad Hidayatullah and Basappa Danappa Jatti
- Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was not just the youngest President of the country but was also the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
- Pratibha Patil was the first and the only women President of India
- If the President of India intents to resign from his post, he/she needs to do it in accordance with the procedure prescribed in Article 61 of the Indian Constitution. The President needs to give a hand-written letter to the Vice President, in case of resignation
- The President is elected by the members of both the House of Parliament and the elected members of the legislative assembly of States and Union Territories
