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Legal row over Oriya lexicon ends

Correspondent

CUTTACK: A lower court here has settled the row over the publishing rights of the 76-year-old Oriya lexicon and allowed Lark Books publisher Mahendra Mishra to go ahead with reproduction of the encyclopaedia.

The copyright controversy over ‘Purnachandra Bhasakosha’ entered into a legal storm in October 2006 when the district court here slapped an interim stay over the reproduction and sale of the reproduced copies of the dictionary that was originally published by late Gopal Chandra Praharaj, a Cuttack-based lawyer and journalist who died in May 1945.

Praharaj’s granddaughter Girija Nandini Praharaj had challenged the reproduction of the lexicon republished by the Bhubaneswar-based publisher.

Accusing the publishing house of violating the Copyright Act by reproducing the lexicon, the petition had alleged that the publisher had used some ‘derogatory’ words against Praharaj family in the preface of the new book. The petition had alleged that the publisher had reproduced the dictionary only for his own business purpose and did not bother to inform the family members of the original writer.

It may be mentioned here that the original lexicon, a voluminous 9000-page dictionary, has around 1.85 lakh words, their meanings in Hindi, Bengali and English with special usage of all words and their pronunciations in English was first published in 1931. But the proprietor of Lark Publishers Mahendra Mishra came out with the reproduction of the lexicon early last month stirring up a major copyright controversy in the State.

While the family members of the original writer claimed that they were on the job of coming out with the revised edition of it, Mishra asserted that the Praharaj family no longer enjoy the sole right over the book as it has ended in January 2006 as per the Copyright Act.

The legal battle had shifted to Orissa High Court when the owner of Lark Books, Mahendra Mishra, challenged the interim stay order passed by the lower court. The High Court, however, had remitted the matter to the district court with a direction for the early disposal of the case “in view of the importance” of the litigation.

Plea rejected

District sessions judge Mukunda Prasad Mishra last month rejected the plea of the Praharaj family saying, “the suit is not maintainable”. “The claim raised by the Praharaj family that they have proprietary right by way of succession was rejected in view of the provision under Section 22 of the India Copyright Act-1957, the district judge said.

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