New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and seven states seeking their response to a PIL demanding that lands acquired for special economic zones be returned to the farmers in case of non-utilisation.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and L. Nageswara issued notice to West Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, on the writ petition filed by SEZ Farmers Protection Welfare Association, representing farmers and agricultural labourers of Andhra Pradesh who are affected by such zones in that state.

Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves and counsel Sravan Kumar submitted before the court that out of about 45,000 hectares of land acquired by 20 states for SEZs, about 30,000 hectares have not been utilised but are still being used by industrialists to obtain loans from banks for other purposes.

The association sought the court’s intervention in providing necessary relief and compensation to the farmers and labourers for keeping the land unutilised since acquisition and return them to their rightful owners, most of whom comprise people from the economically weaker sections of the society who have been impacted by this “unnecessary, unmindful and unwarranted acquisition”.

It said the acquisition has resulted in severe livelihood crisis, mass migration, fodder shortage for cattle, and increased debt burden leading to cases of farmer suicides. It pointed out that the government has admitted in Rajya Sabha that as high as 40 per cent of the total land acquired for SEZs across 20 states remain unutilised until March 13, 2015. The plea said over 77 per cent of notified SEZ land is in four states – Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

Not only these states have had more acquisition but they also are among the states with high ratio of unutilised SEZ land. While about 20 per cent of the total SEZ land remains unutilised in Andhra Pradesh, it’s about 39 per cent in Gujarat, 47 per cent in Maharashtra and 53 per cent in Tamil Nadu, the petition pointed out.