India against Pakistan municipal courts deciding on Jadhav appeal

Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 17

India has expressed dissatisfaction with the law passed by Pakistan providing the right to appeal to Kulbhushan Jadhav, and called upon it to correct the infirmities as they amount to municipal courts sitting in appeal over the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“The Bill codifies into law the earlier Ordinance-with all its shortcomings. It does not create a piece of machinery to facilitate effective review and reconsideration of Jadhav’s case, as mandated by the judgment of the ICJ,’’ said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi at a media briefing here on Thursday.

Reacting to reports relating to the Review and Reconsideration Bill 2020 passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan on June 10, Bagchi noted that the Ordinance, now the Bill, invites the municipal courts in Pakistan to decide whether or not any prejudice has been caused to Jadhav on account of the failure to provide consular access.

“This is clearly a breach of the basic tenet that municipal courts cannot be the arbiter of whether a State has fulfilled its obligations in international law,’’ he observed.

The ICJ had ruled that Pakistan was in breach of its international obligations because of the failure to provide consular access to Jadhav.

“We call upon Pakistan to take appropriate steps to address the shortcomings in the Bill and to comply with the judgment of the ICJ in letter and spirit,’’ said the MEA spokesperson.

Earlier, Pakistan Law Minister Farogh Nasim had said that the bill had not been passed, India would have gone to the UN Security Council and could have moved contempt proceedings against Pakistan in the ICJ.

While the Bill was on the cards, India has repeatedly asked for the verdict to be complied with in letter and spirit.

Last July, Indian diplomats had walked out of the meeting with Jadhav after Pakistan reneged on its earlier assurance of unimpeded access by stationing officials with an intimidating demeanour next to Jadhav.

The diplomats had also detected a camera to purportedly record the interaction.

India has requested Pakistan over a dozen times for “unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional consular access” to Jadhav who has been on death row since 2017.