He was rarely seen and rarely heard during his tenure as a supreme court judge, but Justice Nitte Santosh Hegde report on illegal mining in Karnataka is now threatening the very existence of BJP's first ever government in the South. He also catapulted the office of the state Lokayukta at the forefront in the fight against corruption at the top.

"There is no question of me yielding to their pressure...I am beyond all that. I have been a judge for six and a half years," said Santosh Hegde.

It is an irony that the JDS-BJP coalition led by HD Kumaraswamy and B S Yeddyurappa made him the Lokayukta Five Monsoons ago. The first one year of Hegde was uneventful and many thought that it was a post retirement gift to him. The calm and composed Hegde proved them wrong by exposing the mining mafia through his interim report in 2008.

That report shook the state and the newly elected BJP government promised action. In reality, it did nothing.

Hegde did not confine himself to the luxuries of his office. He toured the entire state and raided corrupt officials and politicians everywhere.

When his repeated recommendations for more power to Lokayukta fell on deaf ears an angry Hegde resigned from the post. An Uncompromising Judge, he has always put interest of the people above his personal interest. Justice Hegde demits office next Tuesday. But he has secured a permanent place for himself in the history as a true crusader, and as part of Anna's team that is fighting for a strong Lokpal Bill, Hegde is set to play a bigger role in India's war against corruption.