Amid a dispute over who invented popular Indian dishes “butter chicken” and dal makhni, restaurant chain Daryaganj has complained to the Delhi High Court that proprietors of Moti Mahal have made a “defamatory” statement against them in a foreign newspaper.
Daryaganj said the U.S.-based newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, had last month carried a report on the dispute over origin of the dishes, in which proprietors of Moti Mahal restaurant called them as “cheats”.
Moti Mahal proprietors, however, sought to distance themselves from the published article, saying they have already made a request to the newspaper to “retrieve the statement” as this “misquoted the brand”.
While in the article, the term “cheat” was used, it was never stated by its proprietor Monish Gujral, Moti Mahal’s communication to the newspaper said.
The High Court on March 20 noted that proprietors of Moti Mahal are “effectively seeking to dissociate themselves from the remarks attributed to them, suggesting that the expressions found in the article were not reflective of their direct communications or intentions”.
It directed Moti Mahal to submit an affidavit, affirming their effort to distance themselves from the disputed statement in the published article. The court has posted the case for further hearing on May 29.
For years, the two restaurant chains have claimed that they invented “butter chicken” and dal makhani. The dispute arose as Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundal Lal Jaggi — founders of Moti Mahal — once worked together.
Daryaganj owners have claimed that the recipes were invented by Jaggi.
Earlier this year, Moti Mahal sued Daryaganj for taking the credit for the two dishes and claiming that there was a relation between them.
The applicant, Ms. Rupa Gujral, said the two recipes belonged to her family. She said the late Kundan Lal Gujral, her father-in-law, had started making these in 1920 in Peshawar, now in Pakistan.
Refuting the claims of the Gujral family, owners of Daryaganj say it was the late Kundan Lal Jaggi who came up with the idea of the two recipes.
They say that the first Moti Mahal restaurant was jointly established in Peshawar by Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi.
