The Delhi High Court Tuesday sought a response from TMC MP Mahua Moitra in a fresh revision petition filed by advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai — the Trinamool Congress leader’s former partner — over pet Rottweiler, Henry.
Dehadrai sought rejection of Moitra’s suit before a trial court seeking “shared custody” of Henry.
Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri, on Tuesday, issued notice on Dehadrai’s revision plea as well as on an application seeking a stay on the trial court proceedings. With no counsel present from Moitra’s side in the courtroom, Justice Ohri, however, refused to grant any immediate stay on the trial court proceedings, orally remarking “not in their absence”.
The court will hear Dehadrai’s petition next on May 14.
Dehadrai, in the petition before the HC, is also seeking that a November 10, 2025 order by the Saket court — where it had refused to reject Moitra’s suit on Dehadrai’s insistence — be set aside.
The district court had denied Moitra interim custody of the pet dog, which she has challenged before the Delhi HC. The petition remains pending and will be heard on April 29.
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The two petitions
Dehadrai, in his plea before the Delhi HC, has submitted that animals are recognised in law as “property” and thus there exists no statutory regime which permits for adjudicating over “custody rights” over a ‘property’.
Moitra, in her plea before the Delhi HC, has argued that pets cannot be treated as mere “movable property” akin to a piece of furniture.
Now, Dehadrai’s plea contends that “emotional or equitable considerations cannot substitute for legal rights in a civil action”.
According to Dehadrai, Moitra’s suit “attempts to elevate informal personal communications arising from a prior personal relationship into a binding legal contract.” Given that the parties only engaged in discussions which eventually “never matured into an enforceable arrangement”, Dehadrai has argued that “such discussions cannot create civil rights”, and has argued that the Saket district court has permitted Moitra’s suit to continue despite “lacking foundational legal elements to proceed to trial”.
Moitra’s HC petition, on the other hand, has referred to emails Moitra and Dehadrai purportedly exchanged discussing the sharing arrangement for Henry, and has emphasised that email exchanges between parties can constitute a valid contract in the absence of a formal written agreement.
Additionally, Dehadrai has also submitted that with Moitra instituting the suit in 2025 after the dog was purchased in 2020-21, any cause of action stemming from alleged contractual rights will not lie beyond three years: the maximum limit prescribed for invoking civil action.
As per legal experts, Indian statutes do not view pets as sentient beings with a right to be parented and are considered as ‘property’ for all practical purposes. However, the strict property interpretation is slowly being challenged by the concept of “best interest”, a principle usually reserved for child custody battles.
Sohini Ghosh is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express. Previously based in Ahmedabad covering Gujarat, she recently moved to the New Delhi bureau, where she primarily covers legal developments at the Delhi High Court
Professional Profile
Background: An alumna of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), she previously worked with ET NOW before joining The Indian Express.
Core Beats: Her reporting is currently centered on the Delhi High Court, with a focus on high-profile constitutional disputes, disputes over intellectual property, criminal and civil cases, issues of human rights and regulatory law (especially in the areas of technology and healthcare).
Earlier Specialty: In Gujarat, she was known for her rigorous coverage in the beats of crime, law and policy, and social justice issues, including the 2002 riot cases, 2008 serial bomb blast case, 2016 flogging of Dalits in Una, among others.
She has extensively covered health in the state, including being part of the team that revealed the segregation of wards at the state’s largest government hospital on lines of faith in April 2020.
With Ahmedabad being a UNESCO heritage city, she has widely covered urban development and heritage issues, including the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram
Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025)
Her recent reporting from the Delhi High Court covers major political, constitutional, corporate, and public-interest legal battles:
High-Profile Case Coverage
She has extensively covered the various legal battles - including for compensation under the aegis of North East Delhi Riots Claims Commission - pertaining to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, as well as 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
She has also led coverage at the intersection of technology and governance, and its impact on the citizenry, from, and beyond courtrooms — such as the government’s stakeholder consultations for framing AI-Deepfake policy.
Signature Style
Sohini is recognized for her sustained reporting from courtrooms and beyond. She specialises in breaking down dense legal arguments to make legalese accessible for readers. Her transition from Gujarat to Delhi has seen her expand her coverage on regulatory, corporate and intellectual property law, while maintaining a strong commitment to human rights and lacuna in the criminal justice system.
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