The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed filmmaker Subhash Ghai to return a plot of land allotted to his Whistling Woods International film institute.

Ghai is running the institute at Goregaon in northwest Mumbai. The studio and the institute were built on 5.5 acres of land and Ghai was allotted an additional 14.5 acres of surrounding land for expansion in 2000 by then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

The court directed Ghai to immediately hand over 14.5 acres of open land and gave him time till July 31, 2014 to return the 5.5 acres.

The Bombay High Court was hearing a public suit filed by Rajendra Sontakke, who alleged gross abuse of power by Deshmukh in allotting land to the institute.