The Appellate Division on Monday reduced daily fines to Tk 10,000 from Tk 50,000 the High Court earlier imposed on each of the 154 errant tannery owners until they shifted their factories from Hazaribagh to tannery park at Savar. A four-judge bench chaired by chief justice SK Sinha asked the tannery owners to deposit half of the amount of the daily fine to the ministry of industries and the rest half to Bangladesh Liver Foundation Hospital. The bench passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Bangladesh Tannery Owners Association for staying the High Court order imposing the fine. Supreme Court lawyer Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, also a ruling Awami League lawmaker, moved the petition of the association. He argued that the tannery factories could not be shifted unless the industries ministry completely set up Central Effluent Treatment Plant at the tannery park at Savar. On June 16, the High Court ordered the errant tannery owners to deposit their daily fines in the account of the industries ministry for their repeated failure to shift their factories to Savar in violation of High Court orders since 2001. The High Court passed the order after hearing a public interest writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh for imposing financial penalties on the non-compliant tannery owners. On June 28, the vacation chamber of the Appellate Division stayed the High Court order until July 17. In the chamber court, the rights organisation’s lawyer Manzill Murshid raised the question whether Sheikh Taposh could justify his appearance for the errant tannery owners when the prime minister herself asked for the shifting of the tanneries to protect the capital’s environment. Out of 155 tannery owners, only one complied with the High Court directive and shifted the factory to the tannery park at Savar where the industries ministry allotted plots for the tanners.
