India, May 15 -- The Bombay high court has strongly criticised the Maharashtra revenue department for harassing an 82-year-old retired Army Naik who was wounded in the 1971 India-Pakistan war, over the delayed allotment of land promised to him more than five decades ago.

A division bench of justices Girish S Kulkarni and Advait M Sethna, hearing a plea filed by Vithoba Maruti Parbalkar, observed that the revenue authorities had not only failed to treat the decorated war veteran fairly but also appeared to have misled the court regarding the status of alternate land being offered to him.

"It is shocking when Revenue Officers claim they are unaware of the status of land that houses their own office," the bench remarked in an order dated M...