A delicious dispute has made it to the case menu of Delhi High Court.

The owners of an iconic chain of restaurants have sued a rival chain, started by a descendant of their late partner, for claiming to have crafted two dishes synonymous with post-Partition Delhi: butter chicken and dal makhani.

Moti Mahal’s proprietors told the court that they “are the owners of the famous trademark ‘Moti Mahal’ and related formative marks, used in relation to restaurants operating nationally and internationally since 1920”, and that “the defendants are misleading the public into believing that their ‘Daryaganj’ restaurants are connected with the plaintiffs’ predecessor’s first ‘Moti Mahal’ restaurant in Daryaganj”.

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Sandeep Sethi, told the court of Justice Sanjeev Narula on Tuesday that the proof of the alleged misrepresentation by the defendant was the “use of a picture of the plaintiffs’ predecessor, the (late) Kundan Lal Gujral, on their Facebook page, misrepresenting it as that of the defendants’ predecessor, (late) Kundan Lal Jaggi,” as well as the “…manipulation of the photograph of the Moti Mahal restaurant in Peshawar on their website, substantiating this claim with a comparison to the ‘original’ photograph shown at plaintiffs’ own website”.

The defendants’ lawyer, Amit Sibal, offered to take down the Peshawar photo from their website as a gesture of goodwill. He clarified that the incorrectly labelled photo of Gujral “is not from the defendants’ Facebook page and evidently belongs to ‘A to Z Kitchen’, an entity unrelated to the defendants”.

He further said that the “restaurant was established jointly by predecessors of both parties, thus invalidating any claims of exclusive rights over the image that the plaintiffs might claim” and that “the defendants’ website has been cropped to exclude the term ‘Moti Mahal’, rendering the plaintiffs’ grievance unfounded”.

Amit happens to be the son of Kapil Sibal, former MP for Chandni Chowk, the parliamentary constituency within which the neighbourhood of Daryaganj lies. It was in the Daryaganj area that Delhi’s first Moti Mahal opened in 1947.

The matter has been listed for May 29, giving the patrons and owners of both restaurants plenty of time to ruminate.

Social media was quick to slam both their butter chickens as overpriced shadows of their original recipes and now replicated at every restaurant that describes itself as Punjabi.

Gujral passed away in 1997, and Jaggi in 2018. The following year, Jaggi’s grandson Raghav and his associate Amit Bagga started Daryaganj, the restaurant chain.

Moti Mahal claims that Gujral invented not just butter chicken and dal makhani but also tandoori chicken and the chicken pakora.

Perhaps another lawsuit is due from someone against tandoori momos — an enduring favourite in the capital that tramples upon everything that food puritans hold dear about tandoori chicken or momos.

The website of Daryaganj stakes Jaggi’s claim to inventing butter chicken and dal makhani — the bones of contention in the case. It credits an unnamed Bengali patron with a suggestion that led to the recipe for butter chicken.

“One fine night in 1947, Kundan Lal Jaggi was about to shut shop when a group of hungry refugees arrived at the doorstep of his restaurant, eager to have their first meal of the day,” the website says.

“The kitchen was nearly empty at that late hour, barring a few portions of their famous tandoori chicken. A Bengali gentleman also dining at the restaurant suggested Kundan Lal Jaggi make a gravy and add tandoori chicken into it so that everyone could have a hearty meal.”

It adds: “Kundan Lal Jaggi was struck with an idea. After finding whatever he could in the kitchen, he created a gravy with tomatoes, fresh butter, and some spices. He then added pieces of cooked tandoori chicken to it, which is why the recipe is a dual recipe of tandoori chicken cooked first and then added to the makhani ‘butter’ gravy.”

An entirely different butter chicken popular in Old Delhi comes in a gravy of butter and curd — usually attributed to Aslam on Matia Mahal Road. Perhaps to pre-empt any future lawsuit, Aslam tells anyone who listens that the whole world has copied his recipes.

His namesake, Ahmed Aslam Ali of Glasgow, is credited with the chicken tikka masala, which former British foreign secretary Robin Cook called the “true British national dish” in 2001.