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According to former Cabinet secretary T S R Subramanium, Vice-President Krishan Kant's death will not create a constitutional void of any sort.
Subramanium told rediff.com, "The post of vice-president is not an executive post. The only constitutional function the vice-president performs is as chairman of the Rajya Sabha."
In the Rajya Sabha, there is a set, well-defined line of succession. When the chairman is not attending the House, there is a panel that takes care of the task of conducting its sessions.
"Other than this," Subramanium said, "there is no constitutional role a vice-president performs, so I see no constitutional void."
Since no constitutional void is created by the absence of a vice-president, there is no provision in the Constitution for an acting vice-president and the post will remain vacant till it filled through an election at the earliest, August 12 in this case.
After the Cabinet resolution expressing sorrow at Krishan Kant's death, the formal arrangements for his funeral would have begun, another former Cabinet secretary said.
Explaining the protocol to be followed for VVIP funerals, he said, "As Mr Krishan Kant's funeral will be a state funeral, the arrangements will be made by the defence ministry's protocol department along with the vice-president's secretariat. The invitation list, timing, security arrangement, deputation of soldiers and all other details will be decided by them."
He added that the regular protocol department of the Government of India has no role to play in these arrangements.
Yet another former bureaucrat said, "The drill for the vice-president's funeral will not be much different from that of Mrs Indira Gandhi or a few Cabinet ministers who have died in office. Our protocol system is well-defined and our army has enough experience to handle such an occasion."
The first time a vacancy occurred in the vice-president's post was on July 20, 1969, when V V Giri resigned as acting President and vice-president after the death of Dr Zakir Hussain on May 3 to contest the ensuing presidential election.
The second time a sort of vacancy arose was after the sudden death of President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed on February 11, 1977, when Vice-President B D Jatti took charge as acting President.
In the third instance, Vice-President R Venkataraman resigned to be elected President and the post was filled about a month later with the election of Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma unopposed to the post.
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