New Delhi: Terming it “luxury litigation”, the Supreme Court Thursday rejected former actor Anita Advani’s plea that her relationship with the late superstar Rajesh Khanna be recognised as marriage.
Advani, who was with Khanna in his last years till he passed away in 2012 and said she is “seeking dignity”, had challenged an April 1 order of the Bombay High Court dismissing her petition.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Prasanna B Varale observed that there was no ground to entertain the plea.
“This is luxury litigation,” it said.
The counsel appearing for Advani said, “… At the end of the day, my prayer in my civil suit which is for this declaration, is premised on some sense of dignity.”
The High Court had dismissed the appeal filed by Advani challenging an order passed by the Dindoshi sessions court in Mumbai in 2017 rejecting her civil suit seeking similar relief after the Bollywood superstar’s death in July 2012 at the age of 69.
The Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday signals the end of a road for Advani who has long been seeking recognition for her relationship with Khanna.
Advani claimed she was in a live-in relationship with Khanna for several years till she was evicted from his bungalow, Aashirwad, in Mumbai’s upscale Bandra area in 2012 by his estranged wife, Dimple Kapadia, daughter Twinkle Khanna and son-in-law Akshay Kumar.
In 2013, Advani filed a complaint before a magistrate under the provisions of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (DVA) against Kapadia, her daughters as well as Kumar. She sought monthly maintenance and a three-bedroom flat in Bandra.
Advani, who is in her 60s, has appeared in a handful of films, including “Saazish” and “Daasi”.
In 2015, the high court quashed Advani’s complaint and allowed the pleas filed by Kapadia and her family seeking its dismissal.
Quashing the proceedings, the high court observed that Advani’s relationship with Khanna was not in the nature of a marriage and she can therefore not seek relief under the provisions of the DVA.
The court also held that all family members of the late film star cannot be roped into the legal proceedings as Advani never lived with them.
Advani, who made her acting debut in 1978 with a small role as a dancer in the Dharmendra-Zeenat Aman starrer “Shalimar”, participated in the Salman Khan-hosted reality show “Bigg Boss” in 2013 and was evicted early in the season.
Two years ago, she launched her memoir, titled “The Endearingly Wicked Ways of Rajesh Khanna” on the late actor’s birth anniversary. The book draws on her personal memories of Khanna and offers an account of his life beyond his public persona, including anecdotes about his personality and their relationship.
“There was no secret about our relationship among his friends and mine. Initially, we tried to hide our relationship, but when it became obvious, then it spread. We were not hiding our relationship,” she said during an interview with the Meri Saheli podcast.
Khanna’s sprawling bungalow, Ashirwaad, originally belonged to Rajendra Kumar. Khanna reportedly convinced Kumar to sell the bungalow to him. After Khanna’s death, the property was sold to an industrialist in 2014.
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