law: Patents Act, 1970
  21. Time for putting application in order for acceptance 
  (1) An application for a patent shall be deemed to have been
  
  abandoned unless within fifteen months from the date on which the first
  
  statement of objections to the application or complete specification is
  
  forwarded by the Controller to the applicant or within such longer period as
  
  may be allowed under the following provisions of this section the applicant has
  
  complied with all the requirements imposed on him by or under this Act, whether
  
  in connection with the complete specification or otherwise in relation to the
  
  application.
  Explanation :  Where the application or any specification or,
  
  in the case of a convention application, any document filed as part of the
  
  application has been returned to the applicant by the Controller in the course
  
  of the proceedings, the applicant shall not be deemed to have complied with
  
  such requirements unless and until he has re-filed it.
  (2) The period of fifteen months specified in sub-section (1)
  
  shall, on request made by the applicant in the prescribed manner and before the
  
  expiration of the period so specified, be extended for a further period, so
  
  requested (hereafter in this section referred to as the extended period), so,
  
  however, that the total period for complying with the requirements of the
  
  Controller does not exceed eighteen months from the date on which the
  
  objections referred to in sub-section (1) are forwarded to the applicant.
  (3) If at the expiration of the period of fifteen months
  
  specified in sub-section (1) or the extended period-
  (a) an appeal to the High Court is pending in
  
  respect of the application for the patent for the main invention; or
  (b) in the case of an application for a patent
  
  of addition, an appeal to the High Court is pending in respect of either that
  
  application or the application for the main invention, the time within which
  
  the requirements of the Controller shall be complied with shall, on an
  
  application made by the applicant before the expiration of the said period of
  
  fifteen months or the extended period, as the case may be, be extended until
  
  such date as the High Court may determine.
  (4) If the time within which the appeal mentioned in sub-section
  
  (3) may be instituted has not expired, the Controller may extend the period of
  
  fifteen months, or as the case may be, the extended period, until the
  
  expiration of such further period as he may determine:
  PROVIDED  that if an appeal has been filed during the
  
  said further period, and the High Court has granted any extension of time for
  
  complying with the requirements of the Controller, then, the requirements may
  
  be complied with within the time granted by the court.