The Calcutta High Court has recently declared that employing contractual workers for performing “quasi-judicial functions” in the patents and trademark office is unlawful — potentially jeopardising the legitimacy of lakhs of patents and trademarks registered to date. In the last two years, the Quality Council of India (QCI), an independent non-profit organisation, has recruited contractual staff for the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks (CGPDTM).
What has led to a chaos in the grant of intellectual property rights is the patent body’s decision to hire hundreds of employees “outsourced” through a single source, the Quality Council of India, an autonomous body, and not belonging to the Government of India. In the last one year itself, these employees granted patents and trademarks to companies in quasi judicial orders.
The decisions by “outsourced employees appointed through any agency (and not by the Central Government) in any statutory proceeding can very well be challenged as null and void as these orders are passed by legally incompetent persons”, the Department of Legal Affairs said in a legal opinion April 25, 2024, sought by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) earlier that month. In her opinion on June 17, 2024, ASG Aishwarya Bhati suggested “annulment of decisions” made by the “unauthorised outsourced employees”.
On March 29, 2024, DPIIT issued a showcause notice to Unnat Pandit , Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, asking why action should not be initiated for violating GFR 2017 and for delegating quasi-judicial powers to contractual staff without its consent.
The CGPDTM responded that “the DPIIT delegated full financial powers to the CGPDTM in his capacity as Head of Department under Revenue Expenditure heads”.
After consulting with DPIIT, ASG concluded that CGPDTM headed by Unnat P Pandit had no authority to “unilaterally hire outsourced employees” from any agency without obtaining specific and “categoric consent” from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
