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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 9, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Bombay High Court has pulled up the The Assistant Controller General of Patents and Designs office in Mumbai for not passing a well-reasoned order in rejecting Deepak Nitrite's patent application. Setting aside the patent department's order, the high court remanded Deepak Nitire's patent application back to the office for fresh consideration and to pass a well-reasoned order within 12 weeks.

 

Justice Arif S. Doctor said that various courts have consistently held that the patent office is under a mandatory obligation to pass a well-reasoned and speaking order that demonstrates independent application of mind and considers the objections raised, the responses, and the prior art relied upon. The mere reproduction of the first examination report, hearing notice, opposition pleadings, prior art documents cited, or positive findings that an invention lacks novelty, inventive step, or patentability would not qualify as a reasoned and speaking order, said Justice Doctor. The patent department's reasoning must disclose the basis on which it has arrived at the conclusions recorded in the order, he said.

 

In 2023, the Delhi High Court had noted that the patent department was passing orders by reproducing objections, without any application of mind, the Bombay High Court said. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have changed, and the frequency with which such orders are passed is only increasing, it said. The Bombay High Court has also set aside orders by the patent office and remanded matters for fresh consideration on account of similar and recurring infirmities, such as recurring deficiencies in patent examination, failure to consider the applicant's submissions and evidence, and absence of reasoned findings on statutory objections, it said.

 

"I must also note that the infirmity lies not in the absence of departmental standards but in the recurring failure to apply them," said Justice Doctor. The directions issued by various courts have repeatedly addressed these very deficiencies, he said. Yet, despite this, the pattern of unreasoned or inadequately reasoned orders has persisted, he said. The consequence is that the high courts are frequently left with little option but to set aside and remand such orders for fresh consideration, even in cases where the ultimate conclusion of the patent department may possibly, upon a proper analysis, prove to be sustainable, he said. Remands necessitated solely on account of such orders result in avoidable consumption of judicial time, duplication of effort within the patent office, and additional delay and expense for applicants, he added.

 

The case has its genesis in Deepak Nitrite seeking a patent on free flowing food grade sodium nitrite and production method. However, the patent department rejected the application on the grounds that "reduction in impurities" cannot constitute an inventive step for the reason that it is "common general knowledge" that no compound is ever 100% pure. The patent department's order does not cite any reference, treatise, standard text, or other identifiable source from which the asserted "common general knowledge" is said to be drawn, said Deepak Nitrite. 

 

"In my unhesitating view, a bald assertion of 'common general knowledge' without setting out the identifiable source/s and/or basis on which such 'common general knowledge' is asserted is not only impermissible but is also wholly arbitrary and contrary to the principles of natural justice," said Justice Doctor. To allow this would effectively amount to permitting the patent department to pass an order on its mere "ipse dixit" by relying upon undisclosed "common general knowledge" or personal knowledge without recording any reasons, he said. Such an approach would also deprive a party against which an order is passed from having the benefits of the reasoning on which the verdict was given so as to challenge it in courts, he said.

 

At 1202 IST, shares of Deepak Nitrite were up 2.3% at INR 1,607.20 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

  

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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