Decisions from Patent Controller?? a long wait...

The following comment comes from a friend and very observant fellow patent practitioner, who wishes to be anonymous:

"The Indian Patent Office decision section shows a whole bunch of decisions uploaded in the last two weeks pertaining to S.15 (refer pages 22/23/24 of the decision segment), and while the hearings for almost all these S. 15 cases were held more than 2 years ago; the decisions are released only now..."

Two years of waiting- after completion of final hearings is a very long time, and it effectively is a loss of precious possible 'patent term' for the Applicant.

I myself am aware of a similar situation- in this case, a post-grant opposition- wherein hearing was completed in June 2009, but the decision is not yet out!

I am often asked by friends/ non Indian IP professionals on how long will it take the Indian patent office to come out with its decision - be it S. 15, s.25(1) or S.25(2). I try not to hazard a guess since I know that these cases [like above exaamples] may take upwards of 2-3 years for a decision.

I, personally think, that such unusually long decision time lines are not beneficial to patent applicants or the opponents.