TMI Blog2020 (2) TMI 1157X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iately refunded to them; the securities/bank guarantees furnished by the petitioners pursuant to interim orders shall stand rescinded/dissolved. - W.P. NOS. 52272/2016 & 58523-58533/2016 C/W W. P. NOS. 25450/2016 & 26503-26513/2016, 38863/2016 & 48608-48618/2016, 51482-51483/2016 & 51543-51552/2016, 16458/2017 (T-RES) - - - Dated:- 4-2-2020 - MR. KRISHNA S. DIXIT J. PETITIONER (BY SRI. SHIVADASS G, SENIOR COUNSEL A/W MISS. SONAL SINGH AND SRI. RAVI RAGHAVAN, ADVOCATE) (BY SRI. K P KUMAR, SENIOR COUNSEL A/W SRI. VISHWASAI RAJENDRA, ADVOCATE) (BY SRI. SHIVADASS G, SENIOR COUNSEL A/W MISS. SONAL SINGH AND SRI. RAVI RAGHAVAN, ADVOCATE) RESPONDENTS (BY SRI. T K VEDAMURTHY, AGA) ORDER All these petitioners being the companies incorporated under the provisions of erstwhile Companies Act, 1956 are knocking at the doors of Writ Court for laying a challenge to the Orders of Assessment/Reassessment made or sought to be made under the provisions of Sec.39 of the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (hereafter 2003 Act ) mainly on the ground that their branches or units cannot be treated as separate legal persons and therefore supply of goods from one branch to anot ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... anagement, as rightly contended by the learned Senior Advocates for the petitioners; (b) in Salmond on Jurisprudence Twelfth Edition, SWEET MAXWELL 1966, at page 298 it is stated: the prime case of a person is a human being, and personality would seem to entail the position of those characteristics belonging to particularly to mankind, i.e., the power of thought, speech and choice. To personify an object is to imagine it as endowed with such attributes; and it is on account of the possession of such qualities that we ascribe personality to such non-human beings as Gods, angels, devils and so forth Since rights and duties involve choice, therefore, they will naturally under any system of law be held to inhere primarily in those beings which enjoy the ability to choose, viz., human beings a person is any being whom the law regards as capable of rights or duties. Any being that is so capable is a person, whether a human being or not Persons are the substances of which rights and duties are the attributes. It is only in this respect that persons possess juridical significance The Apex Court in the historic decision in Ayodhya Case ie., M.SIDDIQ (D) THR LRs. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... not a registered dealer. In such cases what merely happens is that a dealer is issued several registration certificates in respect of his places of business. This does not bring into being as many dealers as there are registration certificates. The registered dealer remains only one. The other provisions are merely for administrative convenience (c) the contention of the Revenue that once the units/branches of a corporate body on being registered as dealers would become juristic persons, cannot be sustained without straining the language of Sec.2(12) which defines the term Dealer ; sub-sec (6) of Sec.38 provides for registration of separate units of a dealer who happens to be a body corporate, having plural branches/units of business; the same reads as under: (6) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, where a dealer is a body corporate and has more than one place of business, Commissioner may, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed and with the consent of the dealer, treat each of such places of business as a separate unit for the purposes of levy, assessment and collection of tax and thereupon all the provisions of this Act regarding registration, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lf ; in other words, sale of goods being an accomplished contract necessarily involves minimum two persons inasmuch as one cannot contract with oneself; even the deeming provision in sub-section (3) of sec.2(29) does not militate against this view; similarly, the inclusive definition of person given in the dictionary clause of the Karnataka General Clauses Act, 1899 does not support the contra contention of the Revenue; (f) similar questions arising under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 had fallen for the consideration of the Hon ble Madras High Court in the case of NATIONAL TEXTILE CORPORATION LTD., -vs- ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, COIMBATORE, 2016- VIL -637-MAD ; the decision therein supports the view taken by this Court; since the provisions of the Karnataka Act and the Tamil Nadu Act are in pari materia with each other, there is no reason or rhyme for this Court to tread a different path; paragraphs 2, 15 16 of the Madras decision are reproduced below: 2. The short issue, which falls for consideration is, whether the petitioners herein, which are two units of National Textile Corporation Ltd., could be treated as two different entities and the transfer of y ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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