Design Law Declared by the Supreme Court of India

By virtue of Article 141 of the Constitution of India (hereinafter, the Constitution), the law declared by the Supreme Court of India (hereinafter, the Supreme Court) is the law of the land. The Supreme Court furtherance to its law-declaring power under Article 141 of the Constitution has declared design law only in three decisions. This Paper seeks to cull out the principles of design law declared by the Supreme Court in the last 72 years. There are only three reported decisions of the Supreme Court on the design law of which two are Division Bench decisions and one is Full Bench decision. Number of decisions per year is not even one. On an average, the Supreme Court has decided 4 cases in a year, or one design case in 8,836.66 days or in 24.21 years. Since the number of reported decisions is very less so only few questions of design law have been answered by the Supreme Court. A review of decisions of the Supreme Court on the design law reveals that: (i) unlike the patent and copyright decisions, the Supreme Court has declared the design law in all the three reported decisions; (ii) no case is reported in which the constitutionality of The Designs Act, 2000 was challenged; (iii) no Constitution Bench or Single Bench decision is reported; (iv) no Chief Justice of India was on the bench in any decision; (v) the Court has unanimously declared the design law; and (vi) no dissenting or concurring judgment is reported.