Supreme Court dismisses Subhash Ghai’s appeal against HC order on Mukta Art-Maha land deal

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by Subhash Ghai-owned Mukta Arts against a Bombay high court’s rasping judgment cancelling the Vilasrao Deshmukh government’s 2004 decision to allot 20 acres of land at throwaway prices to the filmmaker’s company for starting a film institute.
If the bench of Justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad on March 23 had refused to stay the HC’s stinging remarks against Deshmukh, it was even more critical about Ghai as his counsel attempted to show that the filmmaker or his institute had no role in the concessional allotment of the land, the ownership of which still rested with the government.
The bench had repeatedly questioned about Deshmukh’s surprising decision to put his signature on the joint venture agreement between the film institute and the Maharashtra Film, Stage and Cultural Development Corporation. “Why did the chief minister decide to give his blessings through signature on the JV?” the court had asked on March 23.
On Wednesday, the bench said: “One cannot be treated as blue-eyed boy for which chief minister can bend or bypass rules to give away the land of the state. The state government has given land to its blue-eyed boy for a paltry sum of money.”
To drive home its reservations against pick-and-choose policies of governments, the bench told Ghai, "You are a great filmmaker, but there are greater filmmakers also. Why you have been chosen? There must be transparency. If opportunity is given to others then better school could be made.”
“We are not supposed to make comment on the matter, but three CMs did not pass the project. It was in cold storage but then this particular CM comes and takes a peculiar step," the bench said before dismissing the appeal of Mukta Arts.
On February 9, the HC had cancelled the allotment of land to Ghai’s Whistling Woods Film and TV research institute and indicted Deshmukh for "misusing his official position" as the CM by showing "undue favours" to Ghai. Deshmukh’s appeal in the SC seeking removal of strictures is pending though the bench had refused to stay them.
A PIL in the HC had alleged that Deshmukh after becoming the CM had not only expedited allotment of land, for which a request for which was pending with the state government for about 20 years, but also affixed his signature on the joint venture between Mukta Arts and Maharashtra Film, Stage and Cultural Development Corporation, as if to show his blessings to the deal.