By Hindustan Times
In a setback to Bollywood filmmaker Subhash Ghai, the Punjab & Haryana high court on Tuesday stayed the allotment of 20 acres of panchayat land in Haryana’s Jhajjar district to Ghai’s company Mukta Arts.
Ghai was planning to establish a branch of his Whistling Woods film institute at the plot in Badhsa village along the Delhi-Gurgaon border.
The division bench passed the stay orders after taking cognisance of a petition filed by Nafe Singh, a retired schoolteacher from Badhsa.
Singh challenged the allotment alleging that the village common land was sold to Ghai’s company at subsidised rates within the guise of “public purpose”.
The land — as regards to the Kundli-Manesar Expressway — was sold to Mukta Arts on September 30, 2010 for Rs. 8.3 crore.
The court has asked Ghai, Haryana government and deputy commissioner of Jhajjar to file their replies to the contentions raised within the plea before July 31. Earlier this year, the Bombay high court and the Andhra Pradesh HC had cancelled the allotment of 20 acres of land to Ghai in Goregaon, Maharashtra in addition to Hyderabad.
