Reiterating that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) remains in abeyance, India on Thursday dismissed the recent award of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), stating that its rulings are beyond jurisdiction, lack legal basis, and hold no significance for India’s rightful use of waters.
“India has never accepted the legality, legitimacy, or competence of the so-called Court of Arbitration. Its pronouncements are therefore without jurisdiction, devoid of legal standing, and have no bearing on India’s rights of utilisation of waters. India also categorically rejects Pakistan‘s selective and misleading references to the so-called award,” said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during a press briefing in New Delhi.
IWT Suspended Over Pakistan’s Support for Terrorism
“As reiterated earlier, the Indus Waters Treaty stands in abeyance by a sovereign decision of the Government of India, taken in response to Pakistan’s continued sponsorship of cross-border terrorism, including the barbaric Pahalgam attack,” Jaiswal said.
The MEA reiterated that India has never recognised the legal existence of the Court of Arbitration and considers its constitution a serious breach of the IWT. Any proceedings or awards from such a body, New Delhi maintains, are illegal and void. Exercising its sovereign rights under international law, India has placed the treaty in suspension until Pakistan credibly and permanently ends its support for cross-border terrorism.
No Authority to Examine India’s Actions, Says MEA
According to the MEA, until the treaty remains in abeyance, India is not bound to fulfil its obligations under it. The ministry stressed that no Court of Arbitration — “much less this illegally constituted arbitral body which has no existence in the eyes of law” — has the jurisdiction to assess the legality of India’s actions in exercising its sovereign rights.
“Today, the illegal Court of Arbitration, purportedly constituted under the Indus Waters Treaty 1960, albeit in brazen violation of it, has issued what it characterizes as a ‘supplemental award’ on its competence concerning the Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. India, therefore, categorically rejects the so-called supplemental award as it has rejected all prior pronouncements of the body,” the MEA said.
“This latest charade at Pakistan’s behest is yet another desperate attempt by it to escape accountability for its role as the global epicentre of terrorism. Pakistan’s resort to this fabricated arbitration mechanism is consistent with its decades-long pattern of deception and manipulation of international forums,” the ministry added.