GI tag for basmati rice

Key Facts

• The State of Madhya Pradesh and the Madhya Shetra Basmati Growers Association have lost two separate cases filed by them in the Madras High Court in 2016 challenging the exclusion of 13 districts in the State from a map submitted by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) seeking Geographical Indication tag for basmati rice grown in the Indo Gangetic Plain.
• Justices R. Subbiah and C. Saravanan dismissed both  writ petitions on the primary ground of maintainability after stating that the Geographical Indications Registry (GIR) had already issued GI tag certificates to APEDA by accepting its claim that basmati rice was grown only in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Uttarakhand apart from 26 districts in Uttar Pradesh besides Jammu as well as Kathua
• The judges pointed out that after the filing of the present petitions in 2016, challenging an order passed by the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) in Chennai, the GIR had passed an order on March 15, 2018, accepting APEDA’s application. Since two more writ petitions had been filed in 2018 challenging the grant of GI tag to APEDA and those cases were still pending, adjudication of present petitions had become merely academic
• However, after the pronouncement of the verdict, the judges suspended the operation of their order for four weeks at the instance of the petitioners’ counsel who intended to take the judgment on appeal to the Supreme Court. The issue dates back to November 2008 when APEDA, a statutory body, filed an application before an Assistant Registrar of Geographical Indications in Chennai seeking GI tag for basmati rice.
• In 2010, Madhya Pradesh opposed APEDA’s application on the ground that the application excluded 13 districts including Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, Sheopur, Datia, Shivpuri and Guna.

About GI Tag

• A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on certain products which correspond to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g., a town, region, or country). India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 has come into force with effect from 15 September 2003. GIs have been defined under Article 22 (1) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement as: "Indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a member, or a region or a locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographic origin."
• The GI tag ensures that none other than those registered as authorized users (or at least those residing inside the geographic territory) are allowed to use the popular product name. Darjeeling tea became the first GI tagged product in India, in 2004–2005. These are listed below.

Source: The Hindu