✏️ Sample Solved Problem (IRAC Method) — KSLU Administrative Law Notes

✏️ Sample Solved Problem (IRAC Method)

Problem: An employee of a statutory corporation (e.g. ONGC) is dismissed in breach of the corporation’s own service regulations. He files a writ petition under Article 226; the corporation objects that, being a commercial body, it is not amenable to writ jurisdiction. Decide.

I — Issue

Whether a statutory corporation is “State” under Article 12 and therefore amenable to writ jurisdiction for breach of its own binding regulations.

R — Rule

R.D. Shetty v. International Airport Authority (1979) and Ajay Hasia v. Khalid Mujib (1981) — a body is an instrumentality or agency of the State (Art. 12) where tests such as deep and pervasive State control, government funding, monopoly status and public-function character are satisfied.
Where a statutory corporation acts in breach of its statutory regulations, the action is open to challenge by writ, since the regulations have the force of law.

A — Analysis

The decoy is the corporation’s “commercial” character — it trades like a company, so it looks like a private employer beyond Article 226. But the form of the body does not decide the question; its substance does. A corporation created by statute, funded and pervasively controlled by the government and discharging public functions answers the Ajay Hasia tests and is therefore State under Article 12. Its service regulations are statutory and binding; dismissing the employee in their breach is not a mere private wrong but a violation of a public-law obligation, which Article 226 exists to remedy.

C — Conclusion

The writ is maintainable. The statutory corporation is “State” under Article 12, its regulations have the force of law, and the dismissal in breach of them can be quashed under Article 226; the corporation’s “commercial body” objection fails.

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