Explanation:

Article 12 defines the “state” which includes:

• Government and Parliament of India
• Government and the Legislature of each of the States
• All local or other authorities within the territory of India or under the control of the Government of India. The words “other authorities” and “under the control” are ambiguous and led to numerous litigations in the Supreme Court. Thus, this article has been subject to judicial interpretation from time to time.

Various Supreme Court judgments have established that:

• Definition of state is inclusive and may include other bodies than executive, legislature of union and states which have been enumerated explicitly in the article 12.
• Any such authority which has power to make any law, pass any order, make an regulation, bye-laws etc. come under definition of state. Thus Panchayats, municipalities, district boards and other statutory, constitutional bodies come within the definition of state.
• Statutory and non-statutory bodies that get financial resources from government , have deep pervasive control of government and with functional characters as such as ICAR, CSIR, ONGC, IDBI, Electricity Boards, NAFED, Delhi Transport corporation etc. come under the definition of state.
• Statutory and Non-statutory bodies which are not substantially generally financed by the government don’t come under definition of state. Examples are autonomous bodies, Cooperatives, NCERT etc. Judiciary is NOT state.
• Many opine that the judiciary should be included in the definition of the state.