TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (8) TMI 217
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....e Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Union of India, the second Respondent herein, to ensure that the acronym ICOAI is used by the first Respondent instead of the acronym ICAI. The writ petition was dismissed by order dated 20.02.2018, which is impugned herein. 2. The first Respondent was incorporated in the year 1944 as a company under the Companies Act, 1913 under the name of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. The main object of incorporating the first Respondent was to promote, regulate and develop the profession of cost accountancy. On 28.05.1959, Parliament enacted the Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959 (the Cost Accountants Act) thereby granting statutory recognition to the profession of cost and management accountancy. Several representations were made by the first Respondent to the second Respondent requesting for a change of name and, in particular, for the deletion of the capitalized word "Works" from the name and the replacement thereof with the capitalized word "Management". During this period, the first Respondent used the acronym ICWAI. Eventually, the Cost and Works Accountants (Amendment) Act, 2011 was enacted, whereby the name of the first Respond....
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....I was used by the first Respondent from 1959 until 2011. From 2011, the first Respondent has started using the acronym ICAI and the use of the said acronym should not be permitted because it misleads stakeholders both with regard to the identity of and the domain expertise of qualified members of the two Institutes. Therefore, it is not in public interest to permit the first Respondent to use the acronym ICAI. In addition, the acronym ICAI is a registered trade mark owned by the third Respondent. Therefore, the first Respondent should not be permitted to use the said acronym. 7. One more issue was raised by the party-in person, namely, the correspondence with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs with regard to the use of the acronym ICAI. By letter dated 17.06.2020, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had advised the first Respondent that it is not desirable for the first Respondent to use the acronym ICAI. By relying upon this document, the party-in-person contended that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs was also of the view that the first Respondent should desist from using the acronym ICAI. 8. Mr.AR.L.Sundaresan, the learned senior counsel made submissions in response and to the co....
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.... an offence for a person, who is not a member of the Institute, to represent that he is a member of the Institute or to use the designation "chartered accountant". Likewise, under Section 24-A, there is a prohibition against the use of a name or common seal which is identical with or deceptively similar to the name or common seal of the CA Institute. The said Section 24-A(1)(i) reads as under: "24-A. Penalty for using name of the Council, awarding degree of chartered accountancy, etc. (1) Save as otherwise provided in this Act, no person shall- (i) use a name or the common seal which is identical with the name or the common seal of the Institute or so nearly resembles it as to deceive or as is likely to deceive the public." His next contention was that the acronym ICAI was registered as a trade mark under the Trade Marks Act by Certificate of Registration of Trade Mark dated 11.09.2016. Consequently, the use of the acronym ICAI by the first Respondent infringes the Trade Mark of the third Respondent as per Section 29 of the Trade Marks Act. For the above reasons, the learned counsel submitted that the present proceeding is maintainable as it pertains to the violation of s....
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....not have locus standi and that the writ petition was not maintainable at his instance. 12. Nevertheless, in view of the fact that detailed submissions were made by the Appellant and by the third Respondent with regard to the alleged infringement of the statutory rights of the third Respondent, we propose to deal briefly with the said contention. The contention that the statutory rights of the third Respondent are being violated by the first Respondent is founded on two planks. The first being that Sections 15-A and 24-A of the CA Act prohibit a person from using a name or common seal which is identical with or so nearly resembles that of the CA Institute as to deceive or be likely to deceive the public. It is evident from the language of Section 24-A of the CA Act that the protection is extended to the name and nomenclature. The name of the first Respondent as per the CA Act is the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Thus, from the perspective of alleged violation of the CA Act, the name of the third Respondent, as per the CA Act, and that of the first Respondent, i.e. the Institute of Cost Accountants of India, are not identical. In any event, Section 28 of the CA Act en....