Court seeks argument from Pakistan, India on basmati geographical indication

LAHORE: An Indian court has asked rice growers of Pakistan and India to file their final arguments over an appeal related to the geographical indication (GI) of aromatic basmati rice by October, officials said on Friday.
Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) at Chennai, India, on July 8, heard the case pertaining to basmati GI, filed by Pakistan Basmati Growers Association (BGA).
The court adjourned the proceeding for the final hearing on November 3 and ordered all the parties, including various Indian bodies and the Pakistan’s trade body, to file their written arguments by October.
Pakistani basmati growers are fighting strenuously at the Indian court in order to protect their geographical indication against infringements in aromatic rice since 2004 and officials said the legal battle has entered into its final phase.
According to the World Trade Organization, GI tag protects the legal rights of agricultural, manufactured and natural goods in a specific geographical territory.
That means the rice produced in areas other than the specified cannot be called Basmati.
The lawyers of BGA attended the proceedings in which one more intervening application was filed by the Basmati Rice Growers, Patiala, Punjab, as a party. The tribunal, after hearing the arguments, listed all the matters, including BGA’s petitions for the final hearing.
The tribunal also passed necessary order, directing the registry not to entertain any fresh intervening applications in any of the matters, relating to the issue of GI of basmati.
The BGA has been struggling since 2004 to protect what it calls its legitimate rights of basmati growers of Pakistan, with the assistance of the federal and Punjab governments.
The BGA filed the appeal against the order of the assistant registrar of the GI registry that ordered inclusion of Madhya Pradesh in the amended application by the Indian Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda).
BGA submitted that Basmati is a name for a slender, aromatic and long grain variety of rice mainly grown in the specific geographical area at the foothills of the Himalayas in Pakistan.
The counsel for BGA has also specifically appealed against the inclusion of Madhya Pradesh in the areas for registration of GI tag for Basmati in India.
Apeda had filed an application in 2008 with the GI Registry to register the name Basmati for rice covering Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and part of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, omitting the state of Madhya Pradesh.
BGA maintained that Apeda is not representative of growers of basmati and it is supporting basmati production outside its defined area in the application that is Andhara Pradesh. Apeda defines basmati differently and in contradiction to the basic character of photo period sensitivity and presence of the typical basmati aroma.
The application of Apeda tends to extend basmati area to 28 districts of Uttar Pradesh, while Basmati is grown only in some of the northern districts of Indian Punjab.
BGA indicated a limited area for basmati production in Pakistan, consisting of the 15 districts of Punjab, Pakistan, including Lahore, Narowal, Sialkot, Gujrat, Gujranwala and Mandi Bahauddin.