NEW DELHI / KATHMANDU - The Delhi Tamil Advocates Association wrote an urgent letter to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on August 30, appealing for immediate intervention to trace former Madras High Court judge and Supreme Court-designated Senior Advocate Justice Veerasamy Sivagnanam (Retd.), who has been untraceable since catastrophic flash floods and landslides struck Nepal on August 26.
Justice Sivagnanam was travelling in Nepal as part of a group of Tamil pilgrims undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra when the disaster struck. He last spoke to his wife over a WhatsApp call in the early hours of August 26. There has been no communication from him since.
In its appeal addressed to CJI Surya Kant, the Association stated that Justice Sivagnanam's presence among the pilgrims on the bus was confirmed by a group photograph. Fellow pilgrims travelling in a separate bus who were subsequently rescued near the Armed Police Force Nepal Border Outpost at Timure informed the family that Justice Sivagnanam's bus was only about 100 to 200 metres away from theirs when the disaster struck. Despite the proximity, Justice Sivagnanam and the passengers on his bus have not been located or accounted for.
The bar body has urged CJI Surya Kant to forward its appeal to the Government of India and the concerned authorities and to take all possible immediate steps to trace Justice Sivagnanam and facilitate his safe return to India.
A Distinguished Legal Career Spanning 34 Years
Justice Veerasamy Sivagnanam has had a distinguished career spanning 34 years in the Indian judiciary and legal profession. He began his career in the Tamil Nadu State Judicial Service in the early 1990s, serving in the subordinate judiciary, including as a District and Sessions Judge across several jurisdictions in Tamil Nadu.
He was elevated to the Madras High Court as a judge in 2020, where he handled a wide range of civil, family, and writ matters during his tenure. After his retirement from the High Court, the Supreme Court of India designated him as a Senior Advocate in July 2025, one of the highest recognitions of legal expertise available to an advocate in India's judicial system.
His disappearance in the Nepal floods has drawn wide concern from the legal fraternity, given his decades of service to the Indian judiciary and the legal community.
The Catastrophe in Nepal: Scale and Scale of Missing Indians
The floods and landslides that struck Nepal on August 26 represent one of the worst natural disasters to hit the country in recent memory. The death toll from the flash floods in Nepal had risen to 788 as of August 31, 2026. At least 2,502 people remain missing, while 9,435 people have been rescued from flood-affected areas, according to Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
Among the missing are a significant number of Indian citizens. As of August 31, 2026, 320 Indians remained missing and 108 Indian nationals had been confirmed dead.
Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were among the most affected Indian states in terms of stranded pilgrims. Tamil Nadu Information Minister Rajmohan informed the Legislative Assembly that all 103 persons from Tamil Nadu and three from neighbouring Puducherry who were stranded in Nepal were accounted for as having been in the disaster zone, with 21 of them subsequently rescued. Efforts to locate the remaining pilgrims are ongoing. The Tamil Nadu government has deployed officials to Nepal to coordinate rescue and relief efforts on behalf of the state's citizens.
Justice Sivagnanam's family is among the many families across India who are waiting for news of loved ones missing in the disaster.
India's Response and the Search Operation
India's Ministry of External Affairs has been engaged on the crisis. India's Embassy in Kathmandu has been in active contact with Nepal's government and rescue authorities to facilitate the tracing and evacuation of Indian nationals.
The Delhi Tamil Advocates Association's letter to CJI Surya Kant specifically seeks the Chief Justice's personal intercession as a supplementary channel of pressure on government authorities, a reflection of how seriously the legal community is treating the disappearance of one of its own.
The flood damage to roads, bridges, and communication infrastructure in the affected areas of Nepal, particularly in the Gandaki and Koshi river corridors that are traversed by Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage routes, has made rescue operations difficult. The APF Nepal Border Outpost at Timure, near which survivors from an adjacent bus were rescued, lies on one of the key routes.
The critical piece of information, that survivors from a bus only 100 to 200 metres from Justice Sivagnanam's bus were rescued while his bus remains unaccounted for, has provided the family and the Delhi Tamil Advocates Association with a specific geographic reference that rescue authorities are working to investigate.
The investigation and rescue operation is ongoing. No confirmed update on Justice Sivagnanam's whereabouts had been received as of the time of publication.
