Public Corporations & Controls over Public Undertakings — KSLU Administrative Law Notes
Public Corporations & Controls over Public Undertakings
A public corporation / public undertaking is an autonomous body created by the State to carry on commercial, industrial or welfare activity, combining “public ownership, public accountability and business management.” There are three organisational forms:
| Form | Created by | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Departmental undertaking | Run as a government department | Railways, Posts |
| Statutory / public corporation | A special statute, with its own legal personality | LIC, ONGC, RBI |
| Government company | s.2(45) Companies Act, 2013 — ≥51% government shareholding | SAIL, BHEL |
A statutory corporation is a juristic person — it can sue and be sued, hold property and contract in its own name — and, where it discharges public functions or is an instrumentality of the State under Article 12 (Ajay Hasia, R.D. Shetty v. International Airport Authority), it is amenable to writ jurisdiction and bound by fundamental rights. Controls over public undertakings are: parliamentary (questions, debates, committees — the Committee on Public Undertakings), governmental (ministerial directions, appointments, audit), and judicial (writs, ordinary suits).