AIR 1980 DELHI 200 ::(1980) ILR(Del) 1 DEL 339 ::(1980) ILR 1 DEL 339 ::ILR (1980) 1 Delhi 339

Delhi High Court

Hon'ble Judge(s): V. S. Deshpande , C.J. AND Harish Chandra , J

(A) Trade and Merchandise Marks Act (43 of 1958) , S.49(3)— Trade and Merchandise Marks Rules (1959) , R.86— Application for registration as registered user of trade mark - Necessity of indicating grounds in show-cause notice for refusal of application and of communicating reasons for decision. Section 49(3) lays down the guidelines for the exercise of discretion by the Central Government. These guidelines are only headings which would be relevant in dealing with the application for registration as the registered user of a trade mark. But none of these headings by itself spells out any particular facts which may amount to the description of the heading. What the facts are would have to be seen by considering the particular case. The very fact that the decision is left to the discretion of the Government itself means that the facts to which Section 49(3) applies are not themselves stated therein. Otherwise the power under Section 49(3) would be merely to decide on the existence or non-existence of the facts stated therein. But since no facts are stated in Section 49(3), the discretion to be exercised thereunder is to bear on the particular facts of a case in which the decision is to be made.(Para 6) The administrative authorities exercising powers under statutory provisions should realise that whether they are issuing a show cau....