4.  The applicant was born in 1946 and lives in Kharkiv. 5.  He owns a house in that city. It stands on State-owned plot of land. On 11 June 1986 the local authorities ordered the demolition of the above house and the return of the land, with a view to building a new block of flats in its place, pursuant to the urban development plan. The authorities offered the applicant a three-room apartment and fixed him certain amounts in compensation. However, the house has not been demolished so far and remains in the applicant’s possession. 6.  On 21 August 1997 the applicant instituted proceedings in the Dzerzhynskyy District Court of Kharkiv against the local authorities claiming the right to privatise the plot of land on which his house stood. 7.  On 8 January 2002 the court rejected the claim as unsubstantiated. The applicant requested an extension of the procedural time-limit for lodging his appeal against the above judgment, as he had found out about it only on 18 March 2002, and the courts granted the extension requested. 8.  On 17 September 2002 the Kharkiv Regional Court of Appeal quashed the above judgment and remitted the case for fresh consideration. 9.  On 27 March 2003 the Dzerzhynskyy Court rejected the applicant’s claim. It found that the authorities had fixed compensation for the land, but he had not applied for it. The court explained that the applicant was entitled to apply to the local authorities to receive the compensation. 10.  On 15 July 2003 the Court of Appeal upheld the above judgment. 11.  On 12 May 2005 the Supreme Court, sitting in camera as a panel of three judges, upheld the lower courts’ decisions and rejected the applicant’s appeal in cassation as unsubstantiated. The applicant was served with a copy of the final ruling on 18 June 2005. 12.  In the course of the proceedings the courts adjourned four hearings upon the applicant’s requests or due to his failure to appear. Furthermore, nineteen hearings were adjourned due to the absence or illness of the judge dealing with the case, absence of the respondents, their requests for adjournments or for unspecified reasons. 13.  In 1999 the local authorities annulled the State registration of the applicant’s title to the house. 14.  On 19 April 2006 the Dzerzhynskyy Court invalidated the authorities’ decision. It also invalidated their decision of 11 June 1986 (see paragraph 5 above). On 16 October 2008 the same court confirmed the applicant’s title to the house in question. 15.  As it appears from the case file, subsequently the applicant lodged a new request with the authorities for privatisation of the land surrounding his house and its examination is under-way. 16.  The local authorities sought a review of the judgment of 16 October 2008, allegedly because their representatives had been unable to be present in the hearing, but their request was dismissed. According to the applicant, the authorities also requested the courts to review the judgment of 19 April 2006. He provided no details as to the outcome of the latter request.