Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Autobiography: Setback For Noted Odisha Linguist As Court Rules In Favour Of Kin

Cuttack: A commercial court has retrained noted linguist, Dr Debi Prasanna Patnaik, from publishing ‘Mo Jibani’, the autobiography of Odisha’s Vyasa Kabi Fakir Mohan Senapati.

The judgment went in favour of Dr Minakshi Dutta, the great-granddaughter of the legendary writer, who had earlier moved the court with an appeal to restrain Dr Debi Prasanna Patnaik & Dr Lalatendu Mahapatra from publishing the autobiography, claiming that she was the custodian of the original manuscript.

The court in its final verdict also declared her as the rightful owner of his manuscripts.

“The court has directed Patnaik to return all the manuscripts, including the poet’s autobiography- ‘Mo Jiban’, Ramayana and Mahabharata—original and digitised– to Minakshi Dutta,” said Dutta’s counsel and senior advocate, Gautam Kumar Acharya.

The manuscripts can only be published by Dutta or Senapati’s relatives, he added.

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

Earlier speaking to Odisha Bytes, the senior advocate had said that his 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 then petitioned the court to permanently restrain them from publishing the autobiography and declare her as the rightful custodian of the original manuscripts. She also sought the court’s help to get back the digitised format of the manuscript,” Acharya added.