"Will take four years...": Ex Calcutta HC CJ TS Sivagnanam Quits Bengal SIR Tribunal

Former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Justice (retd) TS Sivagnanam, has stepped down from the appellate tribunal constituted to hear challenges against voter deletions carried out during West Bengal’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

Justice Sivagnanam tendered his resignation on Thursday, citing personal reasons. His resignation letter was submitted to incumbent Chief Justice Sujoy Paul as well as the Election Commission. Confirming the development, Justice Sivagnanam told PTI, “I submitted my resignation letter to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court yesterday.”

The retired judge was among 19 former judges appointed by the Election Commission following directions from the Supreme Court to hear appeals filed by voters whose names had been struck off the electoral rolls during the SIR process.

During his 22-day tenure on the tribunal, Justice Sivagnanam disposed of 1,777 appeals and did not reject a single petition. However, he expressed concern over the enormous backlog of pending cases. “At the present pace, it would take nearly four years to clear all the appeals from Kolkata alone,” he said.

Initially assigned to hear petitions from Kolkata and North 24 Parganas, Justice Sivagnanam later also took up cases from Malda, Murshidabad and Birbhum after the matters were referred to him by the Supreme Court.

One of the most high-profile cases heard by the tribunal under him involved Congress leader Md Mahatab Sheikh, whose name had been removed from the electoral rolls during the SIR exercise. Justice Sivagnanam ordered the restoration of Sheikh’s voting rights, following which the Congress candidate went on to win the Farakka Assembly constituency.

Reflecting on his work, Justice Sivagnanam said he had approached every appeal impartially. “I approached the appeals with an open mind,” he said, adding that he personally heard the cases of Suprabuddha Sen and his wife Deepa Sen before restoring their voting rights.

The former Chief Justice also said he worked extended hours in an effort to reduce the mounting pendency. “I operated daily from 8.30am to 5pm to clear as many cases as I could, and even on Sundays, I cleared cases without any staff,” he said.

Justice Sivagnanam further revealed that he had heard appeals filed by nuns associated with the Missionaries of Charity. “I heard the appeals of the nuns of Missionaries of Charity and allowed 30 or more of them to vote. Although the certificates of the nuns did not match those from their pre-order lives, I did not reject any appeal,” he stated.

He also pointed to procedural and technical challenges encountered during the appeal process, particularly with the online portal used by the tribunals. “There are still one lakh pending appeals. There were some problems with the online appeals; judges are accustomed to giving long orders, but the portal has word-count restrictions, so I started giving orders in four to five lines to accommodate this,” he said.

Commenting on the transition to digital hearings, Justice Sivagnanam observed that not all retired judges were comfortable with technology. “I am accustomed to e-court proceedings, but not all ex-judges are tech-savvy,” he remarked, while also praising the logistical assistance provided by the state government. “The technical support from the state govt for the 19 tribunals was excellent.”

He also suggested modifications to the system, including the introduction of a dedicated notification mechanism for applicants.

Justice Sivagnanam enrolled with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1986 and was elevated as an additional judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He became a permanent judge in 2011 before being transferred to the Calcutta High Court in 2021. He later served as Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court from May 2023 until his retirement in September 2025.