R A Mashelkar, former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has asked the government to “withdraw” a report written by a panel he headed after a crucial paragraph on patent law was found to have been copied ad verbatim from other sources, without any attribution.

Mashelkar, considered the force behind the the country’s progress on intellectual property and patent issues, submitted this 56-page report on December 29 last year, his last day in office after a 30-year-long illustrious tenure.

“I am broken-hearted at being let down so badly,” an emotional Mashelkar told The Indian Express. “This is the first time such a thing has happened.” He said that a new report will be submitted in three months that will follow the “best ethical practices.”

“Being a scientist, I am so fussy about attributions but in the rush of the last working day, a slip did happen and I deeply regret it,” he said. He said he offered his “unconditional apologies for the inconvenience that has been caused to the Government” and that he took “full responsibility for this unfortunate development.”

At the centre of the controversy is paragraph 5.10 in Report of the Technical Expert Group on Patent Law issues, that was meant to examine whether India’s patent laws are compatible with the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS).

The paragraph has been reproduced from a submission made to the committee by lawyer Shamnad Basheer, currently a Frank H. Marks Visiting Associate Professor in intellectual property law at the George Washington University Law School.

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