Section 43-A of the Consolidation Act, was filed after a delay of 26 years. A perusal of Section 42 reveals that the State Government, may, “at any time”, examine the correctness of any scheme or order passed during consolidation. The expression “at any time”, denotes reasonable time and does not confer a right to file a petition to examine the record after unreasonable delay. The expression “at any time”, requires a person to approach Consolidation authorities, within reasonable time. A delay of two and a half decades, as in the present case, cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be held to be reasonable. In support of our conclusion, we rely upon a judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Gram Panchayat, Kakran v. Additional Director of Consolidation, 1997(4) R.C.R.(Civil), 498 and, therefore, have no hesitation in holding that the Additional Director Consolidation had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition for correction of the revenue record after an unexplained and unreasonable delay of 26 years and to direct the Consolidation Officer to rectify the, so called, errors.
