The Bill was approved after rejection of the statutory resolution moved by senior Communist Party of India member Gurudas Dasgupta, seeking disapproval of the Presidential ordinance of January 8. The Bill, replacing the presidential ordinance, was passed by the Lok Sabha yesterday.

The Bill amending the Patents Act was passed by the Rajya Sabha on December 22 last year but could not be passed in the Lok Sabha. In the meantime, the Government amended the Bill through an ordinance.

Industry Minister Sikander Bakht rejected the Opposition charge that the Bill was not in the national interest and said it was mandatory to get it passed before the April 19 World Trade Organisation deadline. He discounted the Opposition contention that the Law Commission report recommendations were not taken intoconsideration saying they pertained mostly to product patents while this Bill was on biodiversity. Dissatisfied with Bakht's reply, the Opposition, led by Dasgupta, walked out even before the statutory resolution was put to vote.

Dasgupta said by `coming together' the two major parties, BJP and Congress, were ``roughshodding'' over smaller political parties.

During the discussion, Dasgupta, Mohammed Salim, CPI (Marxist) and other members belonging to the Left and non-Congress Opposition parties demanded that the Bill, ``of great importance and likely to affect economic sovereignty of the country'', should be sent to the select committee for an in-depth study.

They said postponement of the Bill was necessary as the Law Commission had also recommended that the Bill, in its present form, should not be passed as it would be detrimental to the country's interests.

They said many other non-governmental organisations representing medical and scientific opinion in the country had also expressed themselvesagainst such a Bill but were ignored by the Government.

Referring specifically to the Law Commission report, Bakht said the Commission had not sent its report to him or his Ministry. He, however, came to know about its contents indirectly when the Prime Minister's office informed him about it, he added.

The Minister said he had replied to the Law Commission on March 9, the day he was appraised of it.

Bakht told the members that the Commission's report was not concerned with the ``specific and limited issues'' raised in the Bill. Instead, the report concerns the product patents issue and not the exclusive marketing rights (EMR) regime relating to this Bill.

He said the Bill was basically meant to gain time till 2005 to enable the country's pharmaceutical industry to restructure itself to face international competition.

Bakht said views of all parties would be taken into consideration at the time of bringing in the Product Patents Bill, which would be comprehensive.He said over 3,000 applications hadbeen received but all of them pertained to product patents. So far, no application had been received for EMR, he added.

During the discussion, the House witnessed acrimonious scenes when Dasgupta wanted to place before the House the concerned report of the Law Commission, saying the Government had so far not brought it to the notice of the members.Chairman Krishan Kant, however, ruled that the Law Commission report could not be laid in the House by a private member as it was an official document. Therefore, only the Government could lay the report if it wanted to.

A number of points of order were raised and the rule book quoted by Opposition members, specially Mohammed Salim, CPI, and Santan Bisi, Janata Dal, to convince the chair that the report could be laid as it was not a secret document.

However, Vice-Chairman Najma Heptullah said she would not go against the chairman's ruling.