A division bench headed by Chief Justice Sujoy Paul of Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the Bengal government to transfer to the Centre immediately a 2,016km stretch running through nine districts of the state to erect fences between India and Bangladesh.

"Problem of handing over the areas to the Centre during the ongoing SIR process by the state would not be considered. It will have to handover the land by evicting the occupiers for which the Centre had already paid the compensation amount," the court said.

The division bench also said that the states concerned and the Centre would not have to settle the issues with immediate effect so that fencing in the remaining part of the border between the two countries could be completed by March 31 this year.

The bench fixed the matter for hearing again on April 2.

The order followed a petition by the Union home ministry alleging that the Bengal government was not cooperating to hand over the land needed to erect fencing along the frontier.

Speaking in the court, the additional solicitor general, Ashok Chakrabarti, said: "A total of 4,716km stretch will have to be fenced. Of this, 2,016.7km stretch falls in nine Bengal districts. Even after repeated requests, the state government is not handing over areas along the proposed border."

Chakrabarti also said the Centre had already disbursed the amount for awarding compensation to the people who would be evicted for occupying the lands along the stretch. He alleged that the state was not taking the initiative, and smuggling of cattle and other goods continued.

Appearing for the state, advocate general Kishore Datta had claimed that the central ministry had been demanding extra land for the purpose. "Moreover, adequate compensation is not being awarded to the victims."

Dutta had also said that eviction of people or vacating land was not possible at a time when the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list was going on.