"Luxury Litigation": Supreme Court Slams the Door on Anita Advani's Bid to Be Recognised as Rajesh Khanna's Wife -

After 14 years of courtrooms, a bungalow, a memoir and a Bigg Boss stint, the apex court calls time on the Rajesh Khanna “marriage” saga.

NEW DELHI: Superstars have blockbuster endings. Legal sagas, not so much. On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India dropped the curtain on one of Bollywood’s longest-running off-screen dramas, and it did so in two words.

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“Luxury litigation.”

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That was the verdict of a bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Prasanna B Varale, which rejected former actor Anita Advani’s plea to have her relationship with the late Rajesh Khanna recognised as a marriage. The bench saw no ground to entertain the petition.

The Courtroom Moment

Advani had challenged the Bombay High Court’s April 1 order dismissing her appeal. Her counsel told the bench that her civil suit, which seeks this declaration, rests on “some sense of dignity.” The judges were unmoved. The petition was rejected, and for Advani, who is in her 60s, this appears to be the end of the road.

How a Bungalow Became a Battlefield

The story goes back to July 2012, when Khanna died at 69. Advani says she was his live-in partner during his last years. She says she was evicted from his Bandra bungalow, Aashirwad, in 2012 by his estranged wife Dimple Kapadia, daughter Twinkle Khanna and son-in-law Akshay Kumar. That is Advani’s account of events.

In 2013, she filed a complaint under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, against Kapadia, her daughters and Kumar. She sought monthly maintenance and a three-bedroom flat in Bandra.

It did not go her way. In 2015, the Bombay High Court quashed the complaint. It observed that her relationship with Khanna was not in the nature of marriage, so she could not seek relief under the Act. It also held that the late star’s family members could not be dragged into the case since she never lived with them.

Next, her civil suit seeking a declaration of marital status was rejected by the Dindoshi sessions court in Mumbai in 2017. The High Court dismissed her appeal on April 1 this year. The court was told that Khanna was never divorced from Kapadia, and held that the relationship had the character of a live-in relationship, since the requirements of a valid marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act were not met.

Thursday’s order was the final stop.

The Plot Beyond the Courtroom

Advani’s life has been anything but dull. She made her acting debut in 1978 with a small dancer’s role in Shalimar, starring Dharmendra and Zeenat Aman, and later appeared in a handful of films including Saazish and Daasi. In 2013, she entered Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss and was evicted early.

Two years ago, she published a memoir titled The Endearingly Wicked Ways of Rajesh Khanna, launched on the late actor’s birth anniversary. It offers her recollections of Khanna beyond his public persona. In a podcast interview, she said their relationship was no secret among his friends and hers, adding that they tried to hide it at first but then stopped.

She has also spoken publicly about what she described as a private marriage ceremony with Khanna. Courts have not accepted that claim.

As for Aashirwad, the house itself has moved on. It originally belonged to Rajendra Kumar, and Khanna reportedly persuaded him to sell it. After Khanna’s death, the property was sold to an industrialist in 2014.

What the Verdict Means for Advani

1. The legal route is effectively closed. With the apex court refusing to entertain the plea, the declaration she sought is off the table. No more appeals on this question, and no legal standing as Khanna’s wife.

2. The dignity argument shifts to the public arena. Advani’s counsel framed the suit as a quest for dignity. With the courts shut, her memoir and interviews are her remaining platform. Expect her to keep telling her story, but as a personal account and not a legal finding.

3. The “luxury litigation” label stings. Courts use that phrase for cases they see as unnecessary or a drain on judicial time. Judges are not obliged to say it, so the remark will be quoted for a long time.

What It Means for the Khanna Family

For Kapadia, Twinkle Khanna and Akshay Kumar, the ruling brings an end to a legal fight that had followed them for over a decade, since the family members were named in the early proceedings. The High Court had already said that the family could not be roped in, and Thursday’s order closes the larger question.

It also protects the family’s standing as the legal heirs in the public narrative. Legally, there is now no competing claim of spousal status over Khanna’s estate and legacy. Whatever rights Advani was seeking through that status have no judicial backing.

The Bigger Legal Picture

Beyond the glamour, the case adds to a body of law on live-in relationships. Indian courts have recognised relationships “in the nature of marriage” under certain conditions, but a live-in bond with a person who is already married, without divorce, faces serious hurdles. The courts’ consistent view in this case is that a relationship, however long and however public among friends, does not automatically become a marriage in law.

For celebrity estates, the lesson is blunt. Without a valid marriage under the applicable law, emotional claims rarely turn into legal rights. Expect lawyers to cite the case when advising clients in similar situations.

What Happens Next

Realistically, the legal chapter is closed. The only possible loose end is a review or curative petition, but those succeed rarely and the apex court’s “luxury litigation” remark suggests little appetite for revisiting the matter.

The public chapter may continue. Advani’s memoir and interviews mean the story of her years with Khanna will keep circulating, and every Khanna anniversary will bring it up again. The legend of Rajesh Khanna, India’s first superstar, has always been bigger than any court order.

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The Bottom Line

Fourteen years, three courts and one very quotable judicial phrase later, the question of whether Anita Advani was Rajesh Khanna’s wife in the eyes of the law has an answer. The Supreme Court says the matter ends here, and the story of the superstar’s last years will now be told in memoirs and memories, not in judgments.

We’ll update this story if there are further developments.

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