State to get Rs 401 crore from Hotel Wildflower Hall

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today said that as per the Himachal High Court’s order issued yesterday, the state government would receive Rs 401 crore from the Wildflower Hall property, establishing the state as the sole owner of the company. He added that it was due to the concreted efforts of his government that the legal battle for protecting the interests of Himachal could be won in the three-decade old Hotel Wildflower Hall dispute.

The state government and the East India Hotels (EIH) had been engaged in a legal battle for the ownership of the high-end resort of Hotel Wildflower Hall located at Mashobra, 12 km from here.

Sukhu said that another important legal success had been achieved in this long battle as the High Court ordered that the state was the sole owner of the bank balances, shareholdings and 50 per cent of the advance against the capital of the Joint Venture Company (JVC) comprising the state government and Mashobra Resort Limited (MRL) constituted to run this high-end property.

An official spokesperson said that as per the court order, the bank balances of around Rs 320 crore belonging to the JVC would be transferred to the government. “In addition, the court has ordered the payment of Rs 25 crore to the state, as per the arbitral award. The entire shareholding of the EIH in the JVC will be transferred to the state for Rs 13 crore,” he added.

The spokesperson said that only 50 per cent of the amount, which comes to Rs 68 crore, would be returned to the EIH in lieu of advance against the capital of Rs 136 crore it had deposited in the JVC, resulting in an additional benefit of Rs 68 crore to the state.

The Supreme Court had on February 20, 2024, transferred the possession and ownership of the entire Wildflower Hall property to the state government, which subsequently took its physical possession and ownership on March 31, 2025. The state government was not receiving any financial returns from the property, but now after the High Court verdict, it would start getting income.