Supreme Court rejects Anita Advani's marriage claim involving Rajesh Khanna

The Supreme Court declined to hear Anita Advani's challenge over her relationship with Rajesh Khanna. The ruling leaves intact findings that the relationship was not akin to marriage.

In Short

• Bombay High Court had upheld a 2017 sessions court dismissal
• Advani said her civil suit sought dignity through legal recognition
• She claimed a years-long live-in relationship before eviction from Aashirwad

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected former actor Anita Advani's plea challenging the dismissal of her petition seeking recognition of her alleged relationship with late actor Rajesh Khanna as a marriage, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Prasanna B Varale said there was no ground to entertain the plea. Calling it "luxury litigation", the court rejected Advani's challenge to an April 1 order of the Bombay High Court.

According to PTI, Advani's counsel told the court, "I am seeking dignity. 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 Bombay High Court had dismissed Advani's appeal against a 2017 order of the Dindoshi sessions court in Mumbai. The sessions court had rejected her civil suit seeking similar relief after Khanna's death in July 2012.

Advani claimed that she had been in a live-in relationship with Khanna for several years until she was evicted from his Mumbai bungalow, Aashirwad, in 2012 by his estranged wife and veteran actor Dimple Kapadia, daughter Twinkle Khanna and son-in-law Akshay Kumar.

In 2013, Advani filed a complaint before a magistrate under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, against Kapadia, her daughters and her son-in-law. Advani, who appeared in a few films, including "Saazish" and "Daasi", sought monthly maintenance and a three-bedroom flat in Mumbai's Bandra area.

In 2015, the Bombay High Court quashed Advani's complaint and allowed pleas filed by Kapadia and her family seeking its dismissal. The court held that Advani's relationship with Khanna was not in the nature of a marriage and that she could not seek relief under the domestic violence law.

The high court also held that all members of the late actor's family could not be included in the legal proceedings because Advani had never lived with them. The Supreme Court has now declined to entertain her challenge to the dismissal of her plea seeking recognition of the alleged relationship as a marriage.

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