Cuttack: Orissa high court has raised concern over prolonged pendency of revision cases before Settlement and Consolidation authorities, saying such delays result in “avoidable hardship and uncertainty to litigants”, particularly in land-record and possession disputes.Justice S K Panigrahi made the observation while directing expeditious disposal of a 2020 revision petition concerning a land dispute at Gopalpur. The web copy of the Aug 14 order was made available on Monday.Flagging the larger administrative issue, the judge directed the revenue secretary and member secretary, board of revenue, Odisha, to take steps to streamline functioning of Settlement and Consolidation authorities and monitor old and long-pending revision cases.The court said the aim should be to ensure that such proceedings are “disposed of within a reasonable time”. A copy of the order was directed to be sent to the two officials for necessary action.The court was hearing a petition by Rukmini Pradhan, represented by advocate Jitendra Kumar Lenka, challenging a May 22 notice issued by the Cuttack Sadar tehsildar asking her to vacate alleged govt land.Pradhan claimed possession of 0.10 acre and five kadis (one kadi (link) is equal to 7.92 inches (or roughly 0.66 feet), and 100 kadi make up a full measuring chain used in land surveying) at Gopalpur under a registered sale deed executed in 1978. She said while 0.10 acre was recorded in her name during consolidation, the additional five kadis covered by the sale deed were left out of the record. She subsequently filed a revision case in 2020 before the Settlement and Consolidation authority seeking correction of the record. The proceeding has remained pending since then.The high court said the “precise identity, location, extent and boundaries” of the lands had to be established before any coercive step could be taken.It directed revenue authorities to conduct demarcation on Aug 21 in the presence of Pradhan and all concerned parties.Justice Panigrahi further directed the joint commissioner-cum-additional commissioner, settlement and consolidation, Cuttack, to dispose of the revision case of 2020 preferably within a month. All parties must be heard and a reasoned order passed, it said.Meanwhile, the court ordered that no coercive action be taken against Pradhan in respect of the land covered by the pending revision proceeding.