Evidence before Registrar. 129. In any proceeding under this Act before the Registrar, evidence shall be given by affidavit:
Provided that the Registrar may, if he thinks fit, take oral evidence in lieu of, or in addition to, such evidence by affidavit.
Death of party to a proceding. 130. If a person who is a party to a proceeding under this Act (not being a proceeding before the Appellate Board or a court),dies pending the proceeding, the Registrar may, on request, and on proof to his satisfaction of the transmission of the interest of the deceased person, substitute in the proceeding his successor in interest in his place, or, if the Registrar is of opinion that the interest of the deceased person is sufficiently represented by the surviving parties, permit the proceeding to continue without the substitution of his successor in interest.
Extension of time. 131. (1) If the Registrar is satisfied, on application made to him in the prescribed manner and accompanied by the prescribed fee, that there is sufficient cause for extending the time for doing any act (not being a time expressly provided in this Act), whether the time so specified has expired or not, he may, subject to such conditions as he may think fit to impose, extend the time and inform the parties accordingly.
(2) Nothing in sub-section (1) shall be deemed to require the Registrar to hear the panics before disposing of an application for extension of time, and no appeal shall lie from any order of the Registrar under this section.
Abandonment. 132. Where, in the opinion of the Registrar, an applicant is in default in the prosecution of an application filed under this Act or any Act relating to trade marks in force prior to the commencement of this Act, the Registrar may, by notice require the applicant to remedy the default within a time specified and after giving him, if so, desired, an opportunity of being heard, treat the application as abandoned, unless the default is remedied within the time specified in the notice.
Preliminary advice by the Registrar as to distinctiveness. 133. (1) The Registrar may. on application made to him in the prescribed manner by any person who proposes to apply for the registration of a trade mark, give advice as to advice by the whether the trade mark appears to him prima facie to be distinctive.
(2) If, on an application for the registration of a trade mark as to which the Registrar has given advice as aforesaid In the affirmative made within three months after the advice was given, the Registrar, after further investigation or consideration, gives notice, to the applicant of objection on the round that the trade mark is not distinctive, the applicant shall be entitled, on giving notice of withdrawal of the application within the prescribed period, to have repaid to him any fee paid on the filing of the application.
Suit for infringement, etc., to be instituted before District Court. 134. (1) No suit—
(a) for the infringement of a registered trade mark; or
(b) relating to any right ii a registered trade mark; or
(c) for passing off arising out of the use by the defendant of any trade mark which is identical with or deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s trade mark, whether registered or unregistered, shall be Instituted in any court Inferior to a District Court having jurisdiction to try the suit.
(2) For the purpose of clauses (a) and (b) of sub-section (1), a "District Court having jurisdiction" shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 5 of 1908. or any other law for the time being in force, include a District Court within the local limits of whose jurisdiction, at the time of the institution of the suit or other proceeding, the person instituting the suit or proceeding, or, where there are more than one such persons any of them, actually and voluntarily resides or carries on business or personally works for gain.
