After almost 18 years, India and Pakistan are set to cross swords at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the case of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav. Jadhav was awarded death sentence by a Pakistan military court on espionage charges.
India moved the ICJ, charging its neighbour of “egregious violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations”, as Islamabad rejected 16 Indian requests on consular access to Jadhav. On Monday morning, at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the ICJ, the Indian legal team would first make their presentations for one and half hours arguing their case. In the afternoon, Pakistan would get the same time for response.
Anticipating India’s intention of moving to the ICJ on the Jadhav issue, Pakistan on March 29 moved a declaration on the recognition of jurisdiction of the ICJ.
Pakistan listed eight exceptions, including “disputes relating to hostilities, armed conflicts and all matters related to national security”. India took recourse to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963, to which both countries are party.
New Delhi claimed Islamabad violated the treaty by denying India its right of consular access to the navy officer-turned-businessman, despite repeated requests.
India also contended it was not informed of Jadhav’s detention until long after his arrest. India pointed out that it learnt about the death sentence against Jadhav from a press release.
Pakistan, for its part, claimed consular access could be provided only if New Delhi assisted Islamabad in investigating Jadhav’s alleged “involvement in espionage and terrorist activities in Pakistan”.
But New Delhi felt “linking assistance to the investigation process to the granting of consular access was by itself a serious violation of the Vienna Convention”.
In its petition, India sought four reliefs including suspension of the death sentence and cancelling the Pakistan military court’s order.
If the Pakistan government is unable to overrule the military court’s verdict, then India would urge the ICJ to declare the verdict “illegal” on the basis of which Jadhav could be released.
Last encounter in ’99
The last time the two countries fought in the ICJ was in 1999 when the IAF shot down a Pakistani spy plane Atlantique in the Kutch area, killing all the 16 Pakistani naval personnel on board. A 16-judge bench of the court on June 21, 2000, had voted 14–2 to dismiss Pakistan’s claim.
Published 14 May 2017, 20:09 IST