Desai, formerly an adviser to RJP Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, has claimed in his petition that the initial portion of the film, including a bhajan on Santokben Jadeja's deity Asi Kandhi, had been lifted from his novel serialised in 28 parts in the Gujarati weekly Chitralekha between March 25, 1986, and March 16, 1987.

He said his novel on the life and times of Jadeja and her husband Sarman Munja was written after painstaking research and interviews with Munja, which were recorded in 14 cassettes.

His counsel Bindukumar Shah and Anil Upadhyaya contended that this violated provisions of the Copyrights Act. The next hearing has been fixed for March 11. On getting information that the film's narrative was based on his novel, Desai said he surfed through a number of magazines and newspapers to know more about it. He said he learnt in an interview of the film's producer Vinay Shukla to Chitralekha that he had never been to Porbander, Jadeja's base, or met her. Shukla had also admitted to gathering the gist of the novel from a woman who knew both Gujarati and Hindi.