Rasagola Row: HC Seeks Reply From Odisha, West Bengal

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday asked the Odisha and the West Bengal governments to furnish reply to a public interest litigation (PIL), seeking scrapping of geographical Indication (GI) tag to ‘Banglar Rasogolla’.

Hearing the PIL filed by Susanta Sahu, Secretary of Punya Utkal Foundation, and Santosh Kumar Sahoo, Editor of Odia Parba, on February 5 this year, the court directed Odisha chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), Chennai Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and West Bengal State Council of Science & Technology to file a counter within eight weeks.

The petitioners had alleged that though the Rasagola has been a part of Jagannath culture and its use in Odisha is centuries-old, the West Bengal was given the GI tag for ‘Banglar Rasogolla’ on November 14, 2017, due to the inaction of the Odisha government.

It was only three months after West Bengal was awarded GI tag for ‘Banglar Rasogolla,’ the Odisha government filed an application for the GI tag to stake claim for ‘Odishara Rasagola,’ the petitioners had pointed out.

The Odisha Small Industries Corporation Ltd (OSIC) had filed the application with the Geographical Indication Registry in Chennai on February 23, 2018.

Earlier, the Geographical Indication Registry office on March 16 had issued a show-cause notice to the West Bengal State Food Processing & Horticulture Development Corporation asking it as to why the GI tag given to ‘Banglar Rasogolla’ shall not be withdrawn.

The notice was served in response to an application for rectification or removal filed by the Regional Development Trust chairman Ramesh Chandra Sahoo, a month ago, at GI’s Chhenai office.

The Trust had alleged that West Bengal had received the GI status for ‘Banglar Rasogolla’ from GI Registry office by furnishing false data.