As defined in Article 12 of the Constitution of India, ‘State’ includes: 1. Parliament of India 2. State Governments 3. State Legislatures 4. Local authorities in India Select the answer using the code given below:

Correct — C, 1, 2, 3 and 4. Article 12 defines 'the State' for the whole of Part III in a single sentence, and that sentence has four limbs: the Government and Parliament of India, the Government and the Legislature of each of the States, all local authorities within the territory of India, and all other authorities within that territory or under the control of the Government of India. Read the limbs against the list in the question and each one is picked up. The Parliament of India is named outright, which is the point students most often miss — the definition covers the legislature as well as the executive, so a statute can itself be struck down for violating a fundamental right. State Governments and State Legislatures are covered by the second limb in the same breath. Local authorities are covered by the third: municipalities, panchayats, port trusts and improvement trusts are all 'State' for Part III purposes, which is why a municipal by-law can be challenged as violating Article 14. The fourth limb, 'other authorities', is the open-ended one the Supreme Court has spent decades filling in, and it reaches statutory corporations and bodies that are instrumentalities or agencies of the government. Since all four items in the list are inside the definition, the all-of-them option is the correct one here rather than the usual trap.

• (a)1 and 3 only — Keeps Parliament and State Legislatures but drops the executive governments of the States, which the second limb of Article 12 names expressly, and drops local authorities, which the third limb names expressly.
• (b)1, 2 and 3 only — The most tempting wrong answer. It gets the three governmental organs right and then leaves out local authorities — but Article 12 says 'all local or other authorities within the territory of India', which is exactly why a municipality or a panchayat can be sued for breaching a fundamental right.
• (d)2 and 4 only — Drops both legislatures. That would leave a law made by Parliament or by a State Legislature immune from Part III, which is the opposite of what Article 13 read with Article 12 achieves.

Article 12 opens Part III by saying that, in this Part and 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. The definition matters because most fundamental rights are guaranteed against the State, so whether a body falls inside Article 12 decides whether it can be taken to court under Article 32 for breaching one. The word 'includes' makes the definition inclusive rather than exhaustive, which is what leaves room for judicial expansion.

Two habits make this item easy. First, read Article 12 as four limbs rather than as one long sentence, and notice that each limb pairs an executive body with a legislative one: Government and Parliament at the Union level, Government and Legislature at the State level. That symmetry is what kills option (d), which keeps the executives and throws away the legislatures. Second, remember that the article says 'local or other authorities' — local bodies are named in the same breath as the catch-all, so anyone who has read the article once will not drop them, which is what option (b) invites. The genuinely contested ground in Article 12 is not in this question at all: it is the phrase 'other authorities', which the Supreme Court has stretched from statutory corporations in Rajasthan State Electricity Board (1967) to the instrumentality-and-agency test of Ajay Hasia (1981) and then narrowed again in Pradeep Kumar Biswas (2002), where the question became whether the body is financially, functionally and administratively dominated by the government. The judiciary's own position is also unsettled, and is usually taught as courts being outside Article 12 when they act judicially but inside it when they make rules or act on their administrative side.

• Article 12 applies to Part III only — its definition of 'the State' does not automatically govern other Parts of the Constitution.
• The four limbs are: Government and Parliament of India; Government and Legislature of each State; all local authorities within the territory of India; all other authorities within that territory or under the control of the Government of India.
• Because legislatures are inside the definition, Article 13 can void a statute that takes away or abridges a fundamental right.
• Local authorities such as municipalities, panchayats, improvement trusts and port trusts are covered expressly by the words 'local or other authorities'.
• The expansion of 'other authorities' runs Rajasthan State Electricity Board (1967), Sukhdev Singh (1975), R. D. Shetty (1979), Ajay Hasia (1981) and Pradeep Kumar Biswas (2002), the last laying down the test of deep and pervasive governmental control.

• Assuming 'State' in Article 12 means only the executive. Both Parliament and the State Legislatures are named in the definition.
• Dropping local authorities because they feel too small to be 'the State' — the article names them expressly.
• Carrying the Article 12 definition into Parts of the Constitution outside Part III; Article 36 has to borrow it deliberately for Part IV.
• Treating every government-funded body as 'State'; after Pradeep Kumar Biswas the test is deep and pervasive control, not mere funding.

Either as a statements-and-code item like this one, or as a single-line 'what does State mean in Article 12' item, or by asking whether a named body such as a public sector undertaking or a private aided college is 'State'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The definition of 'the State' in Article 12 of the Constitution of India applies to which Part of the Constitution?

  • (a)Part II
  • (b)Part III
  • (c)Part V
  • (d)All Parts of the Constitution

  Answer(b) Part III — Article 12 opens with 'In this Part', and Part IV has to borrow the same definition separately through Article 36.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following is NOT expressly named in Article 12 of the Constitution of India?

  • (a)Parliament of India
  • (b)The Legislature of a State
  • (c)Local authorities within the territory of India
  • (d)The Supreme Court of India

  Answer(d) The Supreme Court of India — Article 12 names the Union and State governments and legislatures and all local or other authorities; whether courts fall within it has been left to judicial interpretation.