How can you wait for 3 years to file review plea, court asks Whistling Woods

It directs the film school to halt admission process immediately

July 24, 2014 01:58 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:33 pm IST - MUMBAI:

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday reprimanded Whistling Woods International Film School for a delay of three years in filing a review petition against its previous order of handing over the 20 acre institute land in Film City to the Maharashtra government. The court also directed the institute to halt the admission process immediately, and not allow any new admissions.

“We had granted you three years with the specific understanding that the admitted batch does not suffer. How can you wait for three years to file a review petition?” the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah asked. The judges remarked that when the institute does not take steps on time, students would get affected.

The institute, by a 2012 order, had been directed by the Bombay High Court to surrender the land back to the government by July 31, 2014. As the deadline closes in, various celebrities of the film fraternity have pitched in to support the school.

But the court on Wednesday asked the school: “How much money have you actually paid at the time of the allotment, or before or after the allotment?”

“You aren’t paying a penny to the government and taking away 20 acres of land,” the Bench said. Chief Justice Mohit Shah who had heard the matter in 2011 as well, remarked that he had not written a separate judgment on this aspect at that time.

Mukta Arts and Whistling Woods International Film School have filed review petitions in the Bombay High Court seeking extension of deadline till the government gives it a correct valuation of the land. It had been directed by an order in 2012 to surrender the land to the government after a Public Interest Litigation petition alleged that the then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had misused his powers for granting land to Subhash Ghai for the institute.

The State government represented by Advocate General Darius Khambatta told the court on Wednesday that it would file an affidavit in the matter by July 28. The court will thereafter hear the matter on July 30, a day before the deadline. The school represented by senior counsel Aspi Chenoy admitted that it had delayed the process of filing the review petition. “Yes, we are late. But this is urgent,” he said. He also sought chamber summons to amend the petition for adding more grounds. The plea was allowed.

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