HomeNewsBombay High CourtSubhash Ghai to appeal to Supreme Court against Bombay High Court orderPrint2/11/2012

Mumbai, Maharashtra [India]

Veteran Bollywood filmmaker Subhash Ghai has said he would appeal in the Supreme Court against the order of the Bombay High court asking him to hand over the land allocated to him for his film institution Whistling Woods International, at Film City, in Goregaon at Mumbai...

Veteran Bollywood filmmaker Subhash Ghai has said he would appeal in the Supreme Court against the order of the Bombay High court asking him to hand over the land allocated to him for his film institution Whistling Woods International, at Film City, in Goregaon at Mumbai.

Ruling on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that was filed by Rajendra Sontakke and four other agriculturists from Latur and Osmanabad districts, the Bombay High Court yesterday asked the noted filmmaker to hand over the land allocated to him for his film institution Whistling Woods International, at Film City, in Goregaon.

The land was allotted to Subhash Ghai in 2000 by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh during his tenure.

As per the court order, Ghai will need to return back 14.5 acre of open land that was allotted for building his film school. The court directed him to return the remaining 5.5 acres of land on which the institute is built, by July 31, 2014.

Ghai was also directed by the court to pay rent of Rs 5.3 crore annually since the year 2000 when he and the State government had entered a joint venture to start the institute.

The veteran filmmaker said he would appeal against the ruling in the Supreme Court.

'We respect the High Court Judgement and we will appeal to the Supreme Court for our lawful rights. We are at no fault and have done nothing wrong,' he said.

'We had a legal joint venture in 2002 with Film City and us to use the land for building a world class Film and Media Institute which was challenged by a PIL in court after 10 yrs and we hope we will get full justice from the Supreme Court,' Ghai said in a statement.

Veteran Bollywood Filmmaker Subhash Ghai, Supreme Court, Bombay High Court, Land Allocated, Whistling Woods International, Film City, Goregaon, Mumbai, Public Interest Litigation, Rajendra Sontakke, Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, High Court Judgement, World Class Film and Media Institute