Rajesh Khanna will: Twinkle challenges HC order to give copy to Anita Advani

Twinkle Kumar, former actor and daughter of Bollywood superstar Rajesh Khanna, today filed an appeal before a division bench of Bombay High Court against a single judge's order asking her to give a copy of her late father's will to his former companion Anita Advani.

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Twinkle Kumar

Justice R D Dhanuka, on July 30, had allowed Advani to secure a copy of the will. Twinkle today filed appeal before the bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah which would hear it on August 4. The bench said she need give a copy of the will to Advani in the meantime.

Twinkle's lawyer advocate Birendra Saraf argued that Advani had no right to get a copy of the will as she was not a family member, nor was she a legal heir. Her claim was based on a complaint filed under the Domestic Violence Act and that did not give her the right to secure a copy of Khanna's will. Advani's lawyer Manohar Shetty made a statement that she would not collect a copy of the will until the division bench decided the issue. Khanna's daughters, Twinkle and Rinkie, who are named as his heirs in the will, had earlier filed a probate petition to get it validated ('probated').

Advani, who claims to have lived in with Khanna at his iconic suburban bungalow Ashirwad during the last two years of his life and looked after him, has challenged genuineness of the will, saying that he was not in the position to sign it at the time due to ill-health. Khanna, a yesteryear superstar, died on July 18, 2012. The will names his daughters as the heirs; Twinkle has also been appointed as executor of the will.

Some media reports had said recently that Khanna's bungalow had been sold off to a city-based businessman. Advani is seeking a copy of the probated will apparently to claim a share in the late actor's estate including the bungalow.