NEW DELHI: India on Friday dismissed the Court of Arbitration under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty as illegal, firmly rejecting its authority.The ministry of external affairs snubbed the “supplemental award” by the “illegal” Court of Arbitration for asserting its authority to hear the Kishenganga and Ratle hydropower cases in Jammu and Kashmir.The ministry also highlighted that the court was constituted in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.Supplemental award issued by the Court of Arbitration refers to a follow-up decision specifically on whether the tribunal has the legal authority (competence) to hear the case about India’s Kishenganga and Ratle projects — not on the projects themselves, but on the court’s jurisdiction.“India has never recognised the existence in law of this so-called Court of Arbitration, and India’s position has all along been that the constitution of this so-called arbitral body is in itself a serious breach of the Indus Waters Treaty and consequently any proceedings before this forum and any award or decision taken by it are also for that reason illegal and per se void,” the MEA statement said.After the dastardly Pakistan-backed terrorist attack in Pahalgam, the government placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance.In a strong statement, the foreign minister said the treaty will remain suspended until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably” ceases its support for cross-border terrorism.“Until such time that the Treaty is in abeyance, India is no longer bound to perform any of its obligations under it,” the statement said.“India, therefore, categorically rejects this so-called supplemental award as it has rejected all prior pronouncements of this body,” the issue read.Lashing out at the “charade at Pakistan’s behest”, the government called the “supplemental award” another desperate attempt by Islamabad 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.
