Dhaka: A Supreme Court lawyer has served a legal notice on the Industries Secretary to inform the court whether 154 Hazaribagh tannery owners pay Tk 10,000 per day as compensation to the state coffer for not relocating their industries to Savar Tannery Estate within the given time.

Advocate Manzill Murshid, counsel of the petitioner, sent the notice to Industries Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan on Tuesday.

It was mentioned in the notice that a case will be filed in this connection if the information is not submitted to the court within 48 hours.

On June 16, the High Court directed the 154 tannery owners to pay Tk 50,000 per day as compensation to the government for not relocating their industries to Savar Tannery Estate within the given time.

On July 18, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, ordered each of the 154 tannery owners to pay the government Tk 10,000 per day instead of Tk 50,000 following a leave-to-appeal filed by the owners.

The government on April 1 last suspended rawhide supply to Hazaribagh tanneries as the tanners had failed to meet the March 31 deadline as several others in the past to relocate their tanneries.

But, the government extended the March 31 deadline till April 10 following a request from the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), the implementing agency of the leather estate project.