Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected former actress Anita Advani’s plea challenging an order that dismissed her petition seeking legal recognition of her relationship with late actor Rajesh Khanna as a marriage.
Advani had challenged the Bombay High Court’s April 1 order, which upheld a 2017 decision by the Dindoshi Sessions Court in Mumbai rejecting her civil suit.
Dismissing her plea, a bench comprising Justices M M Sundresh and Prasanna B Varale said there were no grounds to entertain it, describing the matter as “luxury litigation”.
The civil suit followed Khanna’s death in July 2012. Advani had claimed that she lived with the Bollywood superstar for several years before being evicted from his Mumbai bungalow, Aashirwad, in 2012.
She alleged that his estranged wife, veteran actress Dimple Kapadia, daughter Twinkle Khanna and son-in-law Akshay Kumar were responsible for her eviction.
In 2013, Advani filed a domestic violence complaint against them before a magistrate under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act.
She had sought a monthly allowance and a three-bedroom apartment in Mumbai’s upscale Bandra neighbourhood.
In 2015, the Bombay High Court quashed the complaint, allowing pleas filed by Kapadia and her family seeking its dismissal.
The court observed that Advani’s relationship with Khanna did not qualify as a marriage and, therefore, did not entitle her to relief under the domestic violence law.
The court also held that Khanna’s family members could not be implicated in the case, noting that Advani had never lived with them.
Advani, who appeared in films such as Saazish and Daasi, subsequently pursued her civil suit seeking legal recognition of her relationship with Khanna as a marriage.
