Mumbai:
Film director Subhash Ghai says he will ask the Supreme Court to over-rule a verdict that asks him to return 21 acres of land in Film City, Goregaon to the state government. Yesterday, the Bombay High Court also ordered the director to pay nearly 58 crores as arrears.
The High Court said the government had wrongly charged Mr Ghai a rent that is way below market rates. One of Mr Ghai's biggest hits ever was a film named Karz or "debt."
"I am in a soup, the government is in a soup," the director told NDTV today. His film academy, Whistling Woods, is located in Film City in Goregaon. He's been asked to immediately return 14.5 acres that are currently unused; the rest of the property can be used by him till 2014, so that students currently enrolled there are not affected and can graduate as scheduled.
The verdict delivered yesterday has, in many ways, far more serious implications for union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who signed off on the deal with Mr Ghai. In May 2000, Mr Deshmukh was Chief Minister when his government entered a joint venture with Mr Ghai's Mukta Arts. The court said that Mr Deshmukh had abused his powers and misused his office when he was Chief Minister of Maharashtra to give 21 acres of land to Mr Ghai's film institute.
"It is not acceptable that a Chief Minister will personally sign such an agreement, which is illegal. It is clear that Vilasrao has extended undue favours to Ghai's Whistling Woods," the judges said.
The verdict comes days before Mumbai votes for the party that will run its powerful and rich corporation. The Congress in partnership with Sharad Pawar's party is up against the Shiv Sena-BJP combination.
"Its nt possible 2 build educational institutions at current land prices in any city,govt has 2 allocate land for this." tweeted director Shekhar Kapur today.