The State (Article 12)

Article 12 of the Constitution provides that in Part III, unless the context otherwise requires, "the State" includes the Government and Parliament of India, the Government and the Legislature of each of the States, and all local or other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India. Article 36 adopts the same meaning for the Directive Principles in Part IV. It matters because most fundamental rights bind only the State.

The definition is inclusive, and the contested phrase is "other authorities". Local authorities, such as municipalities and panchayats, are covered expressly. For other bodies, the Supreme Court developed the instrumentality or agency test. In Ajay Hasia v. Khalid Mujib Sehravardi (1980) it identified indicators such as State ownership of the share capital, financial assistance meeting almost the whole expenditure, deep and pervasive State control, State conferred monopoly, public functions closely related to governmental functions, and transfer of a government department to the body. In Pradeep Kumar Biswas v. Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (2002) a seven judge Bench held that the question is whether the body is financially, functionally and administratively dominated by or under the control of the Government, and that the control must be pervasive, not merely regulatory.

Bodies that fail the test are not "the State" even if they perform important public functions. In Zee Telefilms Ltd. v. Union of India (2005) the Board of Control for Cricket in India was held not to be State under Article 12, though it may be amenable to writ jurisdiction under Article 226, which reaches any person or authority performing a public duty. This difference between Articles 32 and 226 is a frequent exam point.

The word "State" has different meanings elsewhere: under Article 1 it denotes a unit of the Union, and in tort law the liability of "the State" for wrongs of its servants turns on Article 300 and the sovereign function distinction. Examiners test the four limbs of Article 12, the Ajay Hasia indicators, the Pradeep Kumar Biswas formulation and the BCCI ruling.