Separate registration does not create separate legal personality, and intra-company transfers are not sales under the Act.

Separate registration of branches or units of the same body corporate under the Act does not create independent legal personality or make them separate dealers; the statutory scheme treats them only as separate units for levy, assessment, and collection. On that basis, an inter-unit transfer of goods within the same company is not a sale because the definition of sale requires transfer between at least two legally distinct persons. The assessment and reassessment orders could not be sustained, and the writ petitions were allowed with consequential reliefs.

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Issues: (i) whether branches of the same corporate body acquire independent legal personality on being separately registered as dealers under the Act; (ii) whether supply of goods from one unit or branch to another of the same company amounts to sale for levy of tax under the Act.

Issue (i): whether branches of the same corporate body acquire independent legal personality on being separately registered as dealers under the Act.

Analysis: The charging provision applies to a sale by a dealer, and the definition of dealer in Section 2(12) does not indicate that branches or units of a body corporate become separate legal persons merely because they are separately registered. Section 38(6) permits separate treatment of places of business as separate units for levy, assessment, and collection, but the text uses the expression separate unit and not separate dealer. Rule 47 is likewise facilitative and intended to regulate filing and administration; it does not confer juristic personality on the branch or unit.

Conclusion: The branches or units do not acquire independent legal personality by separate registration and are not separate dealers for the purpose of the Act.

Issue (ii): whether supply of goods from one unit or branch to another of the same company amounts to sale for levy of tax under the Act.

Analysis: The definition of sale in Section 2(29) contemplates a transfer of property in goods by one person to another and presupposes at least two distinct persons. An inter-unit transfer within the same corporate entity is not a transaction between two separate legal persons and therefore does not answer the statutory concept of sale. The interpretation adopted is consistent with the structure of the Act and with the view taken in comparable VAT legislation.

Conclusion: Inter-unit transfer of goods between branches or units of the same company does not amount to sale and is not liable to tax as such.

Final Conclusion: The impugned assessment and reassessment orders could not be sustained, and the writ petitions were allowed with consequential reliefs.

Ratio Decidendi: Separate registration of different places of business of the same body corporate does not create distinct legal persons, and an intra-entity transfer of goods is not a sale unless there are two legally distinct persons capable of contracting with each other.

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