Moti Mahal vs Daryaganj: Delhi High Court to decide who invented butter chicken, dal makhani

Moti Mahal and Daryaganj restaurants have been involved in the debate over who invented butter chicken and dal makhani for years.

The debate over which iconic Delhi restaurant between Moti Mahal and Daryaganj invented butter chicken and dal makhani is likely to be decided by the Delhi High Court, which is hearing a case to settle the dispute, a Bar and Bench report said.

Moti Mahal proprietors have sued the owners of Daryaganj over the use of the tagline "Inventors of Butter Chicken and Dal Makhani". Moti Mahal's owners were represented by senior advocate Chander M Lall and Sandeep Sethi along with advocate Shreya Sethi.

Moti Mahal claimed that Daryaganj restaurant was "misleading people into believing" that there was a relation between them and Daryaganj restaurant, whose first branch opened in the Daryaganj area of the national capital.

"The invention of Dal Makhani is closely linked with the invention of Butter Chicken. He (Gujaral) applied the same recipe with Black lentils and gave birth to Dal Makhani around the same time," Moti Mahal said in its lawsuit.

On January 16, the case came up for hearing before Justice Sanjeev Narula when the court issued summons and asked the owners of Daryaganj restaurant to file their written reply to the suit in one month.

While Daryaganj is yet to reply to the suit, the restaurant's lawyers appeared before the court on Tuesday and contested the allegations and referred to the suit as "baseless and lacking a cause of action".

Daryaganj restaurant was represented by senior advocate Amit Sibal along with advocates Dhruv Anand, D Khanna, Pravin Anand, Nimrat Singh and Revanta Mathur.

They also argued that they had not engaged in any false representation and the allegations in the suit were not true. Justice Narula also issued a notice on Moti Mahal's application for temporary injunctions and kept it for hearing on May 29.

The two restaurants have been involved in the debate over who invented butter chicken and dal makhani for years.

Moti Mahal have claimed that their predecessor, Late Kundal Lal Gujral developed the dishes while Daryaganj restaurant claim that it was Late Kundan Lal Jaggi who came up with the dishes.