Original jurisdiction for design cancellation lies with the Controller, not the High Court, under the Designs Act framework.

Under the Designs Act, 2000, a petition for cancellation of a registered design must be presented to the Controller, because Section 19 expressly shifts original cancellation jurisdiction away from the High Court. The High Court may intervene only by way of appeal against the Controller's order, or where the Controller refers the matter to it, so it has no concurrent original jurisdiction to entertain a direct cancellation petition. The court distinguished other intellectual property statutes that expressly allow applications to be made to the High Court. The original petition was therefore not maintainable before the High Court and had to be pursued before the jurisdictional Controller.

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Issues: Whether an original petition seeking cancellation of registration of a design is maintainable before the High Court under the Designs Act, 2000, or whether such a petition lies only before the Controller.

Analysis: The earlier regime under Section 51A of the Indian Patent and Designs Act, 1911 permitted an interested person to seek cancellation before the High Court, but Section 19 of the Designs Act, 2000 altered that position by expressly providing that a petition for cancellation of registration must be presented to the Controller. The statutory scheme also provides an appeal to the High Court against an order of the Controller and empowers the Controller to refer a petition to the High Court. In light of this express framework, the High Court held that it cannot exercise concurrent original jurisdiction to entertain a cancellation petition directly. The court also distinguished other intellectual property statutes where the relevant enactments themselves permit an application to be made to the High Court.

Conclusion: The original petition was not maintainable before the High Court and had to be pursued before the jurisdictional Controller.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the design registration failed at the threshold for want of original jurisdiction before the High Court, while leaving the petitioner to work out the statutory remedy before the Controller.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special statute expressly vests original cancellation jurisdiction in the Controller and provides only appellate access to the High Court, the High Court cannot entertain a parallel original petition for cancellation of design registration.

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