TIOL-DDT 19 · the untouched capture
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<b><font color="#0000FF" size="3">TIOL-DDT 19</font><br>
28 12 2004<br>
Tuesday</b></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#0000FF" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<b>Patent Act amended by ordinance</b></font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
<font color="#006633"><b>History:</b></font> Though patent rights did exist
in some form since times immemorial, the first codified enactment came in
India by the <b>Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911</b>.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">After Independence,
the need for a comprehensive law was realised. The Government of India appointed
a Patents Enquiry Committee (Bakshi Tekchand Committee) to review the working
of patents law of India, in 1948. And the Patents Bill was introduced in the
Parliament in 1953. The Bill lapsed due to the dissolution of the First Lok
Sabha.<br>
<br>
In 1957, the Government appointed Justice Rajagopala Iyengar to examine afresh
and review the Patents law in India and advise accordingly. The Committee
submitted its report in 1959 and the Patents Bill was introduced in 1965 based
mainly on the recommendations of the Committee. This Bill also lapsed but
was finally passed in 1970, 17 years after the first bill was introduced.
This Act, known as the <b>Patents Act, 1970</b>, is considered to be one of
the most important pieces of legislation to have been enacted in this country.<br>
<br>
<font color="#006633"><b>Back to future:</b></font> Now by an ordinance, the
Government has brought in several changes in the 1970 Act.<br>
<br>
<i>Now a computer programme per se other than its technical application to
industry or a combination with hardware</i>, IS NOT INVENTION.<br>
<br>
Section 5 dealing with <b>Inventions where only methods or processes of manufacture
patentable</b>, is now deleted.<br>
<br>
<font size="1"><b>A resident Indian cannot make an application for patent
outside India unless an application for patent has been made in India.</b></font><br>
<br>
For the ordinance please <a href="http://taxindiaonline.com/RC2/pdfdocs/ordinance.pdf"><b>click
here</b></a></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#0000FF" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<b>What happens to the Calamity Relief Fund?</b></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
It was Rajiv Gandhi who lamented that for every Rupee spent by the Government,
only sixteen paise reach the intended beneficiary. Tragically, this is true
of funds spent on tragedies like natural calamities. THE CAG in its
report to Parliament for the year 2000, had submitted a study on the way calamity
relief funds were used or rather misused. This is what the CAG had to report:-<br>
<br>
<b>Calamity Relief Fund and National Fund for Calamity Relief</b><br>
<br>
Although the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) was created with the objective to
ensure immediate availability of money to combat natural calamities, contributions
received from Central/ State Government were not credited to CRF but were
kept in non-interest bearing Personal Deposit account (PDA). In spite of having
unspent balance under Jawahar Rojgar Yojana (JRY) and Employment Assurance
Scheme(EAS), money was spent from CRF and on inadmissible items which was
contrary to procedure. Irregularities were also noticed in payment of wages.
Thus, the purpose for which the CRF was created was defeated. Significant
points noticed during audit were as follows.<br>
<br>
++ The delay in crediting Government of India/State contribution to CRF resulted
in loss of interest of Rs 44.40 crore to CRF.<br>
<br>
++ State Government invested only Rs 5.20 crore to Rs 97.85 crore in the manner
prescribed by Government of India and kept Rs 299.46 crore in non-interest
bearing Personal Deposit Account/Government account during 1991-99 in contravention
of Government of India guidelines resulting in loss of interest of Rs 35.93
crore.<br>
<br>
++ State Government spent Rs 10.38 crore from Calamity Relief Fund during
1990-98 on the items not covered by Government of India norms.<br>
<br>
++ State Government drew Rs 110.87 crore from CRF without taking into account
the unspent balance of JRY, EAS, etc. during 1992-99.<br>
<br>
++ State Government waived recovery of interest of Rs 21.06 lakh and failed
to recover Rs 37.90 lakh irregularly paid to Rajasthan Tribal Area Development
Co-operative Federation and other agencies.<br>
<br>
++ Out of 3394 incomplete works, 3173 were in progress and 221 incomplete
works were not taken up in the subsequent years though Rs 1.99 crore were
spent on these works.<br>
<br>
++ Works valuing Rs 2.77 crore were irregularly executed by mechanical means/contractors
in contravention of Government instruction depriving the famine stricken people
of employment.<br>
<br>
++ 98 works costing Rs 1.76 crore were sanctioned by 5 District Collectors
in municipal areas in contravention of State Government instructions.<br>
<br>
++ Collector, Banswara adjusted Rs 4.51 crore against the Abstract Contingent
bills though it was not supported by any voucher. Thus, expenditure of Rs
4.51 crore appeared to be suspect.<br>
<br>
++ Rs 44.39 lakh drawn on Abstract Contingent bills by Collector, Bhilwara
during 1987-97 and credited in the Personal Deposit Account of DRDA, Bhilwara
remained unutilised.<br>
<br>
<b><font color="#FF0000">And these are from available records - God
alone knows what lie beneath the accounts, beyond the reach of CAG.</font></b><br>
<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><b>Customs notifications to appoint adjudication officers.
<br>
</b></font><br>
Board has issued notification Nos 141-147-Cus(NT) to appoint adjudication
officers for certain DRI cases. <br>
<br>
<font color="#006633"><b>A fool and his money are soon parted. The rest of
us wait until income tax time.</b></font><br>
<br>
<b>Until tomorrow with more of DDT<br>
<br>
Have a Nice Day </b></font> </p>
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