Revocation Petition Under Section 64 Of Patents Act Not A Suit Within Meaning Of Section 10 CPC: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has ruled that a revocation petition under Section 64 of the Patents Act is not a suit within the meaning of Section 10 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

Section 64 of the Patents Act provides various grounds for revocation of patents. On the other hand, section 10 of CPC deals with stay of a suit — it states that no court shall proceed with the trial of any suit in which the matter is also directly and substantially in issue in a previously instituted suit between the same parties or between parties under whom they or any of them claim litigating under the same title where such suit is pending in India.

“In the absence of any provision by which a revocation petition under Section 64 of the Patents Act can be treated as a suit, a Court cannot deem a revocation petition to be a suit. Deeming fictions, and the creation of deeming fictions, are generally the exclusive province of the legislature,” Justice C Hari Shankar said.

The court observed that Section 10 of CPC does not bring to a halt the proceedings in a suit, even if it applies in the facts of a particular case, adding that it only stays the trial of the suit.

It added that even in a case where Section 10 of CPC applies, the court, which is seized of the later suit, may still pass interlocutory orders under Order XXXIX of the Code and other cognate provisions.

“The Court cannot, however, create a deeming fiction on its own, where the statute does not do so. In the absence, therefore, of any provision which deems a revocation petition under Section 64 of the Patents Act to be a suit, a Court cannot, even in the interests of expediency, so hold,” the court said.

It added: “In other words, in my considered opinion, a revocation petition under Section 64 of the Patents Act is not a suit within the meaning of Section 10 of the CPC.”

Title: DR. REDDYS LABORATORIES LIMITED & ANR. v. THE CONTROLLER OF PATENTS & ORS.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 663

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