Body Corporate Corporation Public Premises Act, S. 2(e), (2) (ii) While construing the expression 'corporation' in Section 2(e) (2) (ii) of the Public Premises Act it cannot be ignored that the object of the legislation in enlarging the definition of 'public premises' in Section 2(e) is to make available the machinery of the Act for evicting unauthorized occupants not only from the premises belonging to the Central Government but also from premises belonging to companies, corporations and statutory bodies in which the Central Government has a substantial interest. Under Section 2(e) (2)(i) premises belonging to a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956, in which not less than fifty-one per cent of the paid up capital is held by the Central Government, are to be treated as public premises. It could not be the intention of Parliament that premises belonging to public corporations whose entire-paid up capital vests in the Central Government and who are the instrumentalities of State would be excluded from the ambit of the definition of 'public premises'. In our opinion, therefore, the expression 'corporation' in Section 2(e) (2)(ii) of the Public Premises Act would include public corporations of the new pattern constituted under the Central Acts wherein the entire paid-up capital vests in the Central Government. Keeping in view the provisions of the Banks Nationalization Act we are of the opinion that the nationalized bank is a corporation established by a Central Act and it is owned and controlled by the Central Government. The premises belonging to a nationalized bank are public premises under Section 2(e) (2)(ii) of the Public Premises Act. The premises belonging to a nationalized bank do fall within the ambit of the definition of 'public premises' contained in Section 2(e) of the Public Premises Act. Merely because the expression 'body corporate' has been used in relation to the nationalized banks in Section 3(4) of the Banks Nationalization Act and the expression 'corporation' has not been used, does not mean that the nationalized bank is not a corporation. The expression 'body corporate' is used in legal parlance to mean 'a public or private corporation' (Black's Law Dictionary p. 159). In English law a corporation has been defined as "a body of persons or an office which is recognized by the law as having not a personality which is distinct from the separate personalities of the members of the body or the personality of the individual holder for the time being of the office in question." (See Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th edn., volume 9, para 1201). Generally speaking, corporations are of two kinds; corporation aggregate and corporation sole. A corporation aggregate has been described as an incorporated group of co-existing persons and a corporation sole as an incorporated series of successive persons (Salmond on Jurisprudence, 12th edn. p. 308). The distinctive features of a corporation are that it has the capacity of continuous existence and succession, notwithstanding changes in its membership and it possesses the capacity of taking, holding and conveying property, entering into contracts, suing and being sued, and exercising such other powers and privileges conferred on it by law of its creation just as a natural person may (see S.S. Dhanoa v. Municipal Corporation, Delhi (1981) 3 SCC 431 : 1981 SCC (Cri) 733). Corporation aggregate may be public or private. A public corporation is a corporation formed for a public purpose e.g. local Government authorities, and it is usually incorporated under a statutory enactment. After the second word war there has been development of a new pattern of public corporations in England as an instrument of planning in the mixed economy. The general characteristics of such a public corporation is that it is normally created by a special statute; it has no shares and no shareholders either private or public, and its shareholder, in the symbolic sense, is the nation represented through Government and Parliament; the responsibility of the public corporation is to the Government, represented by the competent Minister and through the Minister to Parliament; the administration of the pubic corporation is entirely in the hands of a board which is appointed by the competent Minister; and it has the legal status of a corporate body with independent legal personality. (See W. Friedman: "The New Public Corporations and the Law", (1974) 2 SCC 402. There is a similar growth of this type of public corporation in other countries. This trend is also evident in our country since independence and a number of such public corporations have been constituted by Acts of Parliament. (Ashoka Marketging Ltd v. P.N.B., (1990) 4 SCC 406 (422,423,424,425,426,427)