Former judge in the Supreme Court of India, Markanday Katju on Saturday expressed his concerns over the repercussions that India might have to face due to its actions of involving the International Court of Justice in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. Katju, who is also a former Press Council of India Chairman, in a Facebook post said that India had made a serious mistake by going to the ICJ. He also criticised the people “gloating” over India’s victory before the ICJ and said, “Serious mistake for India to go to ICJ. People are gloating over India’s victory before the International Court of Justice regarding Kulbhushan Jadhav. My own opinion is that it was a serious mistake for India to go to the ICJ on this issue, as we have played into Pakistan’s hands, and given it a handle to open up many other issues.”
Katju said that this was the reason Pakistan “did not seriously object” to the ICJ jurisdiction. He said that it was certain that Pakistan would be approaching the International Court of Justice to decide the Kashmir issue and “it will then hardly lie in our mouth to object to the jurisdiction of ICJ since we cannot blow hot and cold together.” Calling the ICJ jurisdiction, “Pandora’s Box”, he said that Pakistan must be happy that India went to the ICJ for a single man’s life as they could now raise a variety of issues, particularly about Kashmir in an international forum, something to which India has always objected.
Earlier this week, the International Court of Justice had announced its verdict in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case and had ordered a stay on his Indian’s execution. Jadhav had been kidnapped in Iran and then taken to Pakistan, where he had been tried by a military court on the charges of being a being a spy and had been sentenced to death. India, however, had not been able to receive any consular access to Jadhav despite repeated requests.
