Supreme Court Denies Anita Advani’s Marriage Claim with Rajesh Khanna
The Supreme Court has rejected Anita Advani's plea for recognition of her relationship with Rajesh Khanna as a marriage, calling it 'luxury litigation.'
The Supreme Court of India rejected former actor Anita Advani’s request to legally recognize her relationship with late Bollywood star Rajesh Khanna as a marriage. The court called the case “luxury litigation” and stated there were no grounds to entertain the plea.
Advani’s petition challenged an April 1 ruling from the Bombay High Court, which dismissed her claim. A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Prasanna B Varale concluded that the appeal lacked merit.
Advani maintained that she was in a long-term live-in relationship with Khanna until his death in July 2012 and sought dignity through her legal actions. Her lawyer stated, “At the end of the day, my prayer in my civil suit… is premised on some sense of dignity.”
The Bombay High Court previously dismissed her appeal following a 2017 ruling from the Dindoshi sessions court. The sessions court had ruled that Advani’s relationship with the actor did not equate to a marriage, disallowing her from seeking relief under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005.
Advani alleged she was evicted from Khanna’s Mumbai residence, Aashirwad, by his estranged wife Dimple Kapadia, their daughter Twinkle Khanna, and son-in-law Akshay Kumar shortly after Khanna’s passing. In 2013, she filed a complaint under domestic violence laws against Kapadia and her family.
In a subsequent ruling in 2015, the High Court quashed Advani’s complaint and accepted the pleas of Kapadia and her family to dismiss the case, emphasizing that Advani’s relationship with Khanna did not constitute a marital bond.
Advani, who acted in a few films, published a memoir about her experiences with Khanna in 2021, revealing personal anecdotes about their life together. She has publicly expressed that their relationship was open among friends and had initially been kept private.
“There was no secret about our relationship among his friends and mine,” Advani stated in an interview.
Sources
Bhupendra Singh Chundawat is a seasoned technology journalist with over 22 years of experience in the media industry. He specializes in covering the global technology landscape, with a deep focus on manufacturing trends and the geopolitical impact on tech companies. Currently serving as the Editor at Udaipur Kiran, his insights are shaped by decades of hands-on reporting and editorial leadership in the fast-evolving world of technology.