India rejects arbitration court's ‘ruling' on Kishanganga, Ratle power projects

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4 hours ago

India on Friday rejected the so-called supplemental award by the Court of Arbitration on the Kishanganga and Ratle hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir, saying it had never recognised the court's authority.
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', said the Ministry of External Affairs.
In a ruling on Thursday, the Court of Arbitration in The Hague said that India holding the treaty in abeyance ' does not deprive the Court of Arbitration of competence' and can therefore continue hearing the matter. The court was considering the impact of India's decision to suspend the treaty on the proceedings.
In April, New Delhi had held the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance following the Pahalgam terrorist attack until Pakistan 'credibly and irrevocably' ends its support for cross-border terrorism.
India has not participated in the proceedings and has rejected all previous rulings of the court on the matter.
India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 with the World Bank as an additional signatory. The pact sought to divide the water of the Indus river and its tributaries equitably among the two countries.
Under the treaty, water from three eastern rivers, Beas, Ravi and Sutlej, was allocated to India and that from the three western rivers – Chenab, Indus and Jhelum – to Pakistan.
The treaty also permitted both countries to use the other's rivers for certain purposes, such as small hydroelectric projects that require little or no water storage.
On Friday, the external affairs ministry said that 'until such time that the treaty is in abeyance, India is no longer bound to perform any of its obligations under the treaty'.
It added: 'No Court of Arbitration, much less this illegally constituted arbitral body which has no existence in the eye of law, has the jurisdiction to examine the legality of India's actions in exercise of its rights as a sovereign.'
'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,' the ministry said. 'Pakistan's resort to this fabricated arbitration mechanism is consistent with its decades-long pattern of deception and manipulation of international forums.'
The dispute
While the treaty had largely ensured peace over water sharing, there has been a long-standing dispute over the Kishanganga and Ratle hydropower projects.
The Kishanganga project, in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district across the Kishanganga river, which is a tributary of the Jhelum river, was inaugurated in 2018. The Ratle project, over the Chenab river in Kishtwar district, is under construction.
Pakistan has raised concerns about the design of the Indian dams, meant for power generation, which it claims will obstruct the flow of the rivers that provide water for 80% of its irrigated crops, thereby accusing India of violating the treaty.
India has rejected the claims.
Islamabad had taken the matter related to the court of arbitration in 2016 even though India had agreed to the neutral expert mechanism.
India argued that having two parallel dispute resolution processes – arbitration court and the neutral expert – was not in line with the treaty.