India accuses Pakistan of flouting ICJ judgment in Kulbhushan Jadhav case

India on Thursday accused Pakistan of violating the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case involving Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer, who has been on the death row in the neighbouring country since April 2017.

New Delhi alleged that Islamabad violated the ICJ judgment as it blocked all avenues for the Government of India to help Jadhav move the High Court in the neighbouring country to seek a review of his conviction and the sentence awarded to him by a military court in Pakistan.

“Pakistan has completely failed to provide the remedy as directed by the ICJ and India reserves its position in the matter, including its rights to avail of further remedies,” Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said on Thursday.

He, however, did not elaborate on the legal options New Delhi was considering to help Jadhav. Eminent lawyer Harish Salve, who had represented the Government of India during the hearing at the ICJ on the case, however, had said a few weeks back that New Delhi might have to go back to the international court as Pakistan Government had showed no sign of implementing the July 2019 judgment.

New Delhi alleged on Thursday that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government not only failed to provide the High Commission of India in Islamabad “unimpeded” consular access to Jadhav, but also declined to hand over the copies of the documents related with the case to a Pakistani lawyer whom Indian government had sought to appoint to seek review of conviction and sentencing of Jadhav in the High Court in the neighbouring country’s capital.

“The whole exercise of not providing any documents related to the case even after repeated requests, not providing an unimpeded consular access and some reported unilateral action of approaching the High Court on part of Pakistan again exposes the farcical nature of Pakistan’s approach,” Srivastava said on Thursday. “Pakistan is not only in violation of the judgment of ICJ, but also of its own Ordinance”

Jadhav has been in the custody of Pakistan Army at least since March 2016. He was accused and convicted of being involved in espionage and sabotage in Pakistan on behalf of an external intelligence agency of India. A military tribunal awarded him death sentence in April 2017. New Delhi moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on July 17, 2019, concluded that Islamabad had violated the Article 36 of the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations 1963, and the death sentence awarded to Jadhav would remain suspended till the review of the conviction.

Pakistan on May 20 last promulgated an ordinance called the “International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance 2020”, which mandated that a petition for review and reconsideration of conviction by military tribunal could be made to Islamabad High Court through an application within 60 days from the day it was brought into force. The petition could be filed by Jadav, himself, a legally authorised representative of him or a consular officer of the High Commission of India in Islamabad.