Scientist RA Mashelkar on Saturday resigned as head of a technical expert committee that looked into patent amendments.
MUMBAI: Scientist RA Mashelkar on Saturday resigned as head of a technical expert committee that looked into patent amendments.
In a letter faxed to Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ajay Dua, Mashelkar said he was "deeply pained by the fact that doubts, explicit or implicit", have been expressed about his "integrity, competence and motives".
In the light of "personalised attack", Mashelkar said he was relinquishing the position of committee chairman and had dissociated completely from the technical expert group on patent law issues.
He had retired as director general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research last year.
Mashelkar said he had headed 12 high-power committees, looking into issues ranging from the Bhopal gas disaster to spurious drug menace and national auto fuel policy but never had such an experience.
"Never before have I had such an unfortunate experience," he said, adding that the four colleagues in the technical expert group, whose eminence and integrity were beyond any question, could undertake the remaining task.
Despite pressure from the Left, pharma firms and NGOs, the government had permitted the expert group to remove "technical inaccuracies" from his controversial report on patent laws, Mashelkar said.
Appreciating the opportunity and the confidence shown on him by the government, Mashelkar assured that he would always continue to serve the nation.
He said the government has given the Technical Experts Group permission to incorporate changes in the report to remove the "technical inaccuracies" and resubmit it for further consideration of the government.
Apart from Mashelkar, the other members of the group were Madhav Menon of National Law school, UGC vice-chairman Mulchand Sharma, International Council of Scientific Union president Govardhan Mehta and former Jawaharlal Nehru Univeristy vice chancellor Ashish Dutta.
TEG was formed after modifications incorporated through a Bill to replace Patent ordinance. The Bill was introduced in Parliament in 2005.
The group was to recommend whether patents amendments would be Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) compliant. Also it was to find out if microorganisms could be excluded from patenting.
The group submitted its report to the government on December 29, which was later withdrawn on February 19 by the group after alleged reports of plagiarism.
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