Nithyakalyani Narayanan. V
On November 28th, the Delhi High Court dismissed a 15-year-old lawsuit filed by three Pakistani plaintiffs, against the export of ‘Super Basmati’ rice by India.
The Court pointed out that no one has appeared for the plaintiffs since 2020 and that the suit had not been prosecuted since then – “Considering the Defendant’s stand recorded as above, no further orders are called for in the present suit. The suit is, accordingly, dismissed for non-prosecution. All pending applications are also disposed of”.
In 2008, the plaintiffs, Trading Corporation of Pakistan, Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan and Basmati Growers Association, had filed a suit in the Delhi High Court seeking an injunction and direction to the Government of India not to give effect to a notification dated 24 May 2006, approving Super Basmati as an evolved Basmati Rice under the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act, 1963, and allowing its export. They claimed that it already has a ‘Super Basmati’ brand and therefore India’s use of the name will constitute passing off and diluting its trans-border reputation, label, quality, variety and classification of evolved Basmati rice. They requested to restrain the authorities in India from granting exports of evolved Basmati rice or any rice from India under the name/ variety/ classification/ trade name ‘Super Basmati’.
On November 28, Justice Prathiba M Singh held that Super Basmati was registered as a geographical indication (GI) in India, under the provisions of the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.
Justice Singh further recorded that as per the Agriculture Ministry’s notification on September 18, 2017, the seed production of all varieties of Basmati rice, notified under Section 5 of the Seeds Act of 1966, is restricted to the GI-registered rice growing areas of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, parts of Uttar Pradesh and state of Jammu & Kashmir.
The Court dismissed the suit for non-prosecution.
The Government of India was represented by Advocates Akshay Amritanshu, Rajendra Kumar, Jitin George, Ashutosh Jain and Anjali Kumari while no one appeared for the plaintiffs.
Name of the case: Trading Corporation of Pakistan Private Limited v Government of India Ministry of Commerce & Industry
Bench: Justice Prathiba M Singh