India on Friday has firmly rejected a "supplemental award" issued by what it described as an "illegally constituted" Court of Arbitration under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called the move a violation of international law and asserted that the Treaty itself stands suspended.
The MEA reiterated that India has never recognised the Court of Arbitration related to the Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir, labelling its formation a "serious breach" of the 1960 Treaty.
"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," it said.
The government further clarified that following the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, India has invoked its sovereign rights under international law to place the IWT in abeyance. “Until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures 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 the Treaty,” it said, adding that no tribunal, "much less this illegally constituted one," has jurisdiction over the matter.
India, therefore, categorically rejected this so-called supplemental award as it has rejected all prior pronouncements of this body. Calling the latest move "yet another charade at Pakistan’s behest," India accused its neighbour of trying to "escape accountability for its role as the global epicentre of terrorism" and engaging in a "decades-long pattern of deception and manipulation of international forums."
The IWT of 1960 was brokered by the World Bank between India and Pakistan to lay out how the two countries share the waters of six rivers in the Indus basin. Under the treaty, India received rights over 20% of the system’s water, which is roughly around 33mn acre-feet (MAF) annually and Pakistan received 80%, about 135 MAF. India suspended the treaty on April 23, a day after the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 people, mostly tourists and from the Hindu community.
