WB Polls: Justice T.S. Sivagnanam Quit Bengal SIR Tribunal After Clearing More Voter Appeals Alone Than Total Restorations By EC

Former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, has resigned from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Appellate Tribunal constituted to hear appeals against the deletion of names from the electoral rolls in West Bengal.

Justice Sivagnanam, who was among 19 retired judges appointed pursuant to directions of the Supreme Court of India, reportedly resigned citing “personal reasons”. However, according to reports, he also remarked that at the existing pace, it would take nearly four years to clear the backlog of appeals pending before the Kolkata tribunal.

Significantly, official data accessed after his resignation showed that Justice Sivagnanam had disposed of 1,777 SIR-related appeals within a span of just 22 days — substantially higher than the number of voters restored to electoral rolls by all tribunals collectively before polling.

According to information available with the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Justice Sivagnanam allowed 1,717 appeals filed by voters whose names had been deleted during the SIR exercise. He also dismissed 60 appeals filed by the Election Commission of India against fresh inclusions in Birbhum district.

The figures have triggered questions because Election Commission data available a day before polling indicated that only 1,607 deleted voters had been restored to the rolls through the appellate process across all tribunals combined. Over 27 lakh voters reportedly challenged their deletions before the appellate authorities.

Justice Sivagnanam's tribunal, therefore, appears to have disposed of more appeals than the total number of voters ultimately reinstated before the elections.

Justice Sivagnanam had been hearing matters from Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, Malda, Murshidabad and Birbhum after his appointment under a March 20 notification issued pursuant to Supreme Court directions.