S Sasikumar, the ISRO scientist who had earlier given graphic details of the torture inflicted on him during his detention to The Indian Express, said they would soon be filing suits for hefty damages, a subject on which the Supreme Court verdict is silent.

He said with the Supreme Court's intervention, the release of Maldivian national, Mariam Rasheeda, from prison seems imminent. Prasad Gandhi, the Kerala-based lawyer who has been fighting the cases for Mariam Rasheeda and Fauzia Hassan, said he would be demanding compensation to the tune of Rs 10 crore for each of them. He said after the order of the Supreme Court, the state government had no grounds to detain Mariam Rasheeda under the National SecurityAct any longer.

"I will discuss the matter with the other petitioners and file suits in Kerala courts itself," he said.

However, among those who felt the SC verdict was inadequate was T Satish, the Supreme Court lawyer who filed the petition on behalf of the appellants. He said while the judges had admitted their appeals, they were silent on the subject of breach of fundamental rights of the victims as well as on the question of damages and compensation.

"It would have been more appropriate for the Supreme Court to finish off the matter once and for all instead of leaving the matter of compensation pending," he said. "The petitioners will obviously be filing the suits for compensation soon but they have to think of the appropriate forum for doing so."

Sasikumar added that monetary compensation was not all that the victims of the ISRO scandal were looking for. He said while he may have been reinstated in ISRO in June 1996, he had not got his "slot" of working on the cryogenic engine project. "Now thatthe Supreme Court has thrown the state government's plea out, I hope I will get my slot in the back," he said.