Pankaj Kumar Giri, an employee of LIC Housing Finance Limited (LIC HFL), challenged his transfer from West Bengal to the Tezpur area office in Assam by way of a writ petition before the Calcutta High Court. Before examining the validity of the transfer, the court was required to determine the threshold question of whether LIC HFL (Respondent No. 2) qualifies as a 'State' or 'other authority' under Article 12 of the Constitution of India, making it amenable to writ jurisdiction. The respondents argued that LIC HFL is merely an associate company of LIC (not a subsidiary), with LIC holding only 45.24% shares and nominating only 3 of 13 directors, and that it raises its own finances and performs no public function. The petitioner contended that LIC's deep and pervasive control through share-holding and director nomination, combined with LIC's own status as 'State' under Article 12, brings LIC HFL within the writ jurisdiction of the court. The judgment, as provided, sets out the competing arguments and traces the evolution of the law on Article 12 through landmark Supreme Court decisions, but the final holding on this question is not included in the extracted text.