Amidst orange peels on the floor, dial phones on the table like other government offices, the Judicial Section houses six Godrej almirahs that stock the original documents painstakingly collected over a hundred depositions and arguments that followed.

The last witness, former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, walked in on June 3 last year; and now, after a year of arguments, the man at the helm of the one-man Commission, (Retired) Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan lives in Chandigarh and is probably sharpening his arguments as he gets ready to meet the target of New Year’s Eve.

His colleagues here in the capital are not at all clued in on whether the deadline will be met. The Report was to be submitted first on March 16, 1993, but a series of extensions has finally meant that 14 years since the demolition, the wait continues.

Political shades of all description have been in office this past tumulous decade and a half, but yet, there is no report. People who have worked with Judge Saheb (as he is referred to here) say he “knows best and will do justice to the Report. We don’t know anything. We just supply the odd document he needs or any other help.”

The staff here maintain that the photocopier here is just three years old and four Pentium-4 computers and telephones are spanking new. They do not miss out on the irony, that when the Commission was set up, it was well before the time when computers made their way into government offices - so “it is not as if all the records have been computerized,” they laugh.

... contd.