The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the tannery owners to relocate the tanneries from Hazaribagh to Savar by April 6.

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, passed the order after hearing on a petition filed by tannery owners seeking a stay on the High Court order.

The court also fixed April 9 for hearing petition on the fines the tannery owners were asked to pay for not relocating their factories in time, reports UNB.

The High Court on Wednesday rejected a petition filed by the tannery owners seeking permission to continue their activities at Hazaribagh in the capital until Eid-ul-Azha.

On March 2, the HC directed 154 Hazaribagh tannery owners to pay Tk 30.65 crore fine for not relocating their factories to the Tannery Estate in Savar within the given time.

On March 1, the Industries secretary submitted a list of 154 errant tannery owners who hadn’t pay Tk 10,000 fine per day according to the court’s previous directive.

On February 7, the secretary appeared before the court following its directive to explain his failure to collect Tk 10,000 per day from the tannery owners. On that day, the HC directed him to submit the list of the 154 tannery owners.

On July 18 last, the Supreme Court ordered each of the 154 tannery owners at Hazaribagh to pay the government Tk 10,000 per day as fine for not relocating their factories to the Tannery Estate in Savar.

The court also ordered the government to donate 50 per cent of the fine to the National Liver Foundation of Bangladesh.

On January 10 last, the Industries secretary submitted a report before the court mentioning that 150 companies paid Tk 10,000 each in August last while four paid the fine for September while three others for October last.

As the secretary failed to perform his duty for collecting the fine, Supreme Court lawyer advocate Manzill Murshid filed a petition seeking a summon order against the secretary to give the explanation.

In 2001, the High Court passed an order for relocating the tannery industries from Hazaribagh of the capital.

The government extended several times the relocation deadline following requests from the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), the implementing agency of the tannery estate project.