Court Stay On Publication Of Fakir Mohan Senapati Autobiography As Kin Claims Rights

Cuttack: A commercial court in Cuttack has restrained the publishers from going ahead with the publication of the autobiography of Odisha’s Vyasa Kabi Fakir Mohan Senapati.

After hearing the matter on August 13, the court in its interim order on August 17 asked the publishers not to publish the autobiography, ‘Mo Jibani’, till the disposal of the suit.

The petitioner, Minakshi Dutta, had prayed the court to restrain Dr Debi Prasanna Patnaik & Dr Lalatendu Mahapatra from publishing the autobiography on the ground that she is the great-granddaughter of Fakir Mohan Senapati and the custodian of the original manuscript.

Speaking to Odisha Bytes, senior advocate Goutam Kumar Acharya, who is representing Dutta, said that her client had signed an MoU with Patnaik in 2018 for digitising the over 100 years old manuscripts, which were lying with her. “She sought their help to restore it. And also asked them to look for a publisher for it,” he said.

In June, Patnaik, however, wrote to Dutta saying that he would publish the autobiography by the end of the month. “My client had sought their opinion on possible publishers but they went ahead and began working on it without her consent,” he said.

Acharya claimed that Dutta has been residing in the house of the late writer in Cuttack since her birth and was in possession of all manuscripts, including those of Ramayan and Mahabharat written by him.

“Dutta has petitioned the court to permanently restrain them from publishing the autobiography and declare her as the rightful custodian of the original manuscripts. She has sought the court’s help to get back the digitised format of the manuscript,” Acharya added.