Ex-Calcutta HC Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam resigns from SIR appellate tribunal

Kolkata: Former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam on Friday said he has resigned from the tribunal, which was hearing appeals challenging the exclusion of names from the electoral rolls following the SIR exercise.

He is one of 19 former judges appointed by the Election Commission on the direction of the Supreme Court to hear appeals arising from decisions of judicial officers regarding the deletions of names from the electoral rolls.

"I submitted my resignation letter to the Hon'ble Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court yesterday," Justice (retd) Sivagnanam told PTI.

Among his most significant orders in the appeals was the inclusion in the electoral rolls of the name of Motab Shaikh, a Congress candidate who later went on to win the election from Farakka. Shaikh's name had been deleted from the electoral rolls during the SIR process.

Enrolled in the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in September 1986, he was appointed as an additional judge at the Madras High Court in March 2009 and as a permanent judge in March 2011.

Transferred to the Calcutta High Court in October 2021, Justice (Retd) Sivagnanam was its chief justice from May 2023 till his retirement on September 15, 2025.