New Delhi: India on Monday, August 31, rejected the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s order setting aside its decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, saying the “illegally constituted” body has no jurisdiction to comment on New Delhi’s sovereign decisions.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India’s decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance remains in force.
New Delhi decided to put the IWT in abeyance as part of a series of punitive diplomatic and economic measures unveiled soon after the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year that killed 26 civilians.
Pakistan had approached the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in March this year to determine the status of the treaty, virtually challenging India’s action.
“Today, the illegally constituted so-called Court of Arbitration (CoA) has issued what it termed as an award concerning Interim Measures and Status of the Indus Waters Treaty,” the MEA said.
“This so-called Court was constituted by the World Bank in patent breach of the terms of the Treaty and India categorically rejects its so-called award, just as it has firmly rejected all prior pronouncements by this illegally constituted body,” it added.
No jurisdiction of Court of Arbitration in India: MEA
India has never recognised the “existence in law of this illegally-constituted and so-called Court of Arbitration,” and has always said the “very establishment of this alleged arbitral body constitutes a grave violation of the Indus Waters Treaty”, the MEA said in a statement.
“Accordingly, India has never appeared before this body and has refused to take any cognisance of its earlier pronouncements,” it said.
The MEA said the Court of Arbitration has “no jurisdiction whatsoever to pronounce on India’s sovereign decisions.”
“Its pronouncements, now or in the future, will have no effect on India’s actions in connection with the projects being undertaken by India,” it said.
In the last few months, India has stepped up work on several hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir that Pakistan had opposed under the provisions of the pact signed in 1960.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration said the court considered the meaning of India’s decision to suspend the treaty, “finding that it could only be a claim that the Indus Waters Treaty is either suspended or terminated”.
The court examined the potential grounds on which India can suspend or terminate the Treaty, including grounds cited by New Delhi in its public statements.
No justification for termination of treaty: The Hague court
“In a unanimous decision, the Court found that none of these grounds could justify suspension or termination of the Treaty. Accordingly, the Indus Waters Treaty remains fully in force, and India must observe its obligations under the Treaty, including those relating to the design and operation of its hydro-electric projects on the Western Rivers,” the Permanent Court of Arbitration said in a media statement.
New Delhi has been maintaining that IWT will continue to be held in abeyance until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism”. The court said that while India did not participate by making written or oral submissions during proceedings, it took into account India’s positions on the issues to the extent “they could be discerned from India’s statements and conduct outside of these proceedings (including Indian government communications to Pakistan and to the neutral expert, and public statements made by Indian officials)”.
The court noted that it looked “extremely seriously” into India’s allegation that “Pakistan’s sponsorship of cross-border terrorism had impeded its utilisation of rights” under the Indus Waters Treaty.
“However, the Court found that even if India’s allegation was assumed to be true, they would not establish a material breach of the Treaty by Pakistan,” the court said.
It said the treaty “does not address terrorism or the use of force and expressly indicates that it governs only the rights and obligations of the Parties with respect to the use of the waters of the Indus Rivers System”.
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