The central legal point established in the judgment is the application of the test to determine whether an entity can be termed as 'State' for the purpose of invocation of the extraordinary jurisdiction of the Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

(PRAYER IN W.P.No.26219 of 2006: This Writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to issue a writ of Certiorari, calling for the records in the order bearing No.Ref.Gen/2006 dated 14 August 2006 issued by respondent 2, so far as it relates to the selection of respondent 3 to 7 for the post of Associate Professor in respondent 1 - Institute.

PRAYER IN W.P.No.26220 of 2006: This Writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to issue a writ of Certiorari, calling for the records in the order bearing No.Ref.Gen/2006 dated 14 August 2006 issued by respondent 2, so far as it relates to the selection of respondent 3 as Professor in respondent 1-Institute.)

The main point arising for consideration in these Writ Petitions are as to whether the writ petitions are maintainable against the Madras Institute of Development Studies. Before going into the legal aspects, it is necessary to refer to the factual aspects of the respondent organization.

2. The Madras Institute of Development Studies was founded as a trust under a deed of trust executed on 18th September 1970, by the founder trustees Elizabeth Adiseshiah and Malcolm Adiseshiah with the objects of

a)Organizing, promoting and executing programme of Social Science research with discipline based or Multi and inter disciplinary approaches, for furthering National and state development

b)For developing instructional materials in the Social Sciences for use by the Universities and other institutions of higher education

c) For providing a network along with the University system and other Research Institutions for the promotion of Social Science Research at the Micro and Macro levels and in particular, to provide a meeting ground for social scientists of the Southern Universities.

d) For training and guiding scholars in M.Phil., and Ph.D., courses in Social Sciences.

e) For organizing and co-operating with other institutions in the organization of Seminars, Workshops, Conferences and Meetings dealing with the Social Science matters.

f) For developing a library and documentation center in Social Sciences.

g) For publishing the results of Research, Reference works, Text Books, Instructional Materials and Periodicals in Social Science, and

h) For undertaking all other activities to promote Social Science Research.

3. The deed of trust also contained the formation of board of trustees. According to the trust deed, the governing counsel consist of 18 persons out of whom apart from the Chairperson, two representatives of the Government of Tamil Nadu, one shall be the Secretary, Department of Finance and the other Secretary of the Department with which the institute is directly related and two nominees of the Indian Counsel of Social Science Research for a period of 3 years, apart from one nominee from a University selected in rotation from each of the Southern States namely, Andrapradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Therefore, in the governing counsel out of 18 members, the said 5 persons are either from Government or from University or from the Indian Counsel of Social Science Research which is the Government of India organization. The Executive counsel of the trust also shall include one representative from the Government of Tamil Nadu nominee one representative from the Indian Counsel of Social Science nominee and one nominee of the University.

4. It is also not in dispute that the said trust deed has undergone few amendments with the approval of the Government of Tamil Nadu as well as the Indian Counsel of Social Science Research so as to enable the nominees from the said organizations and it is also not in dispute that the Government nominees, nominees of Indian Counsel of Social Science Research and the nominee of the Univerity are forming part of the trust.

5. The first respondent institute was reconstituted as a National Institution in the year 1977 by a joint sponsorship of the Indian Council of Social Science Research and