Rasagola war: High Court issues notice to Odisha, West Bengal

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday served notice to Odisha and West Bengal on the Geographical Indication (GI) tag to Rasagola.

The court has served the notice after hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking scrapping GI tag to ‘Banglar Rasogolla’.

The court served notice to Odisha Chief Secretary, West Bengal State Council of Science & Technology. Besides, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) and Chennai Intellectual Property Office (IPO) were also served the notice by the High Court.

Susanta Sahu, Secretary of Punya Utkal Foundation and Santosh Kumar Sahoo, Editor of Odia Parba, had filed the PIL on February 5 seeking GI tag for ‘Odishara Rasagola’ and scrapping GI tag received by West Bengal.

They had alleged that West Bengal got the GI tag for ‘Banglar Rasogolla’ on November 14 last year by furnishing false evidence and data.

While West Bengal got the GI tag for ‘Banglar Rasogolla’, the Odisha government has filed an application for Geographical Indication (GI) tag for ‘Odishara Rasagolla’.

The Odisha Small Industries Corporation Ltd (OSIC) filed the application with the GI Registry in Chennai in February this year.