Former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, Justice TS Sivagnanam
After clearing 1,777 appeals over 22 days and rejecting none, Justice Sivagnanam said at its present pace, the tribunal would need four years to clear all Kolkata appeals before it. Initially, Justice Sivagnanam was appointed to the tribunal for petitioners from North 24 Parganas and Kolkata but he also conducted hearings for cases from Malda, Murshidabad and Birbhum as they were referred to him by the Supreme Court. “There are still 1 lakh pending appeals. The technical support from the state govt for the 19 tribunals was excellent,” he said.
The former judge noted that there is a need for a special button in the system so that a notice can be sent to applicants who have appealed. Justice Sivagnanam felt that it would take another four years to completely process the hearings for Kolkata. 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. Actually, I am accustomed to e-court proceedings, but not all ex-judges are tech-savvy. I understand the login process and how to upload orders — as I have experienced it before — but other retired judges might not have the same experience Although I am not a technocrat.
KOLKATA: Former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, Justice TS Sivagnanam, on Thursday resigned from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) tribunal on personal grounds.