"I don't know what the Government or others think about the report. It's up to them to decide -- whether to implement or not," says Justice Srikrishna. "The Government has every right to do whatever it wants to do with the report. If the Government thinks that it has wasted Rs 1 crore of public money, I have nothing to say about that."

The man who the Sena-BJP Government is accusing of being anti-Hindu is a practising and orthodox Hindu, say his colleagues. He performs puja before coming to the court everyday and he can recite hundreds of slokas. Colleagues say he frequently quotes from the Gita and Hindu scriptures.

Reciting a sloka from the Gita he says: "My job is to do the assigned work honestly and I have done it. I am not concerned about what theGovernment or others say or think about the report. Commissions may come and go, it doesn't bother me."

A polyglot, Justice Srikrishna has command over nine languages apart from English -- ranging from Malayalam to Urdu. He practised law for 28 years before becoming a High Court judge in 1990.

"His humanism and convictions are spread out in a wide arena. He has delivered many landmark judgments," says Yusuf Muchala, a lawyer and one of the counsel who appeared in the Commission.

Mumbai's intellectuals too say that nobody can accuse Justice Srikrishna of partiality. Says Asghar Ali Engineer, scholar and activist: "It is very unfair to reject the report because High Court Justice B N Srikrishna is known for his integrity and impartiality."

Adds Nani Palkhiwala, jurist and economist: "The report is totally impartial. The party in power cannot ask for a report in its interest."

Justice Srikrishna -- who is so punctual that his colleagues say they could correct their watches when he arrives in the courtroom -- does not want to be drawn to controversies.

He refuses to comment on the suggestion that there should be a law to bind the Government to take inquiry commission reports seriously. "Now it would not be fair to say any opinion on this matter. If you had asked me before five years, I would have given my frank opinion on the subject. If I say anything now, it will be immediately linked to my own work," he says.

He says that his judicial work received a setback due to his association with the inquiry commission. "Not that I didn't enjoy the work. I don't distinguish between my works. But, I feel that judicial work is better," he says, adding that he likes this to be his first and last inquiry commission.

When asked how the Commission succeeded in preventing any news leaks to the press, he winks: "Now don't you think how clever a judge I am."

For Justice Srikrishna, the job is over. He says: "Now it's you people who have to decide -- whether the report is worth its salt or a useless one. I'll givemy frank opinion on these issues after some time when things cool down. May be, by that time I'll not be a judge," he added.

That could be five years away -- when he retires in 2003.