Kudos to Prashanth for bringing us this vulaable information at a crucial time. This is because many of the new recruits are disenchanted with the conditions existing in the Patent office and were openly discussing quitting the job. Right now there are 74 Examiners,70 Assistant Controllers, 7 Deputy Controllers, 1 Joint Controller, and 1 Senior Joint Controller(evidence provided on request). DIPP would not update this detail as it could raise lots of uncomfortable questions as to why there are more supervisors than workers.This is the reason why Examiners are in their 9th year of service with no assurance of promotion in the forseeable future. If an examiner is promoted as an Assistant Controller, he would not perform examination of patent applications citing the Patents Act. Now, examination is the core function of the office based on which other responsibilities arise. If an examiner is promoted as an Asst Controller, new recruits would have to fill in his/her place. As DIPP has no such policy for regular recruitments to fill such vacancies, the trend has been to keep Examiners in the same post as long as possible unless vacancies arise for controller posts. Asst Controller, Dy controlleretc(collectively called controllers)  are not defined by the Patent Act.These are just designations fixed by the organization for administrative convenience. If DIPP simply amends the designation of controllers to various levels of Examiners like Examiner 1, 2 and so on and delegates supervisory powers as and when required, the problem of regular promotions can be easily obviated.This could be the last straw to save a sinking ship.