The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday had a word of caution for the government that any deviation from its stand that the issue of Indian Prisoners of War (POWs) languishing in Pakistani jails cannot be taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), will have its own ramifications.
“The Government of India’s stand has been that the issue cannot go to the ICJ. Can it change the stand now? It will have its own ramifications,” a Bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and R Bhanumathi observed. The remarks came after the Bench wanted to know from government’s counsel R Balasubramanian whether the ICJ has any jurisdiction to go into the issue.
He said the Centre has taken a stand that ICJ has no jurisdiction on the issue. The Bench was told that in the past Pakistan had taken some of the issues to the ICJ. The Bench was hearing a batch of petitions raising the issues of POWs, the brutality meted out to Saurav Kalia during the Kargil War and the beheading and mutilation of bodies of two Indian soldiers in 2013 by the Pakistani army, for a direction to the union government to move the ICJ.
It was also hearing an appeal filed by the Centre, challenging the Gujarat high court’s order directing the government to move the ICJ on Pakistan illegally detaining 54 Indian Armymen in breach of an agreement between the two countries after the 1971 war to exchange all POWs.
The Bench on Friday admitted the appeal of the Centre against the HC order. The Apex Court had in 2012 stayed a Gujarat high court order. The Bench had on September 1 last year expressed concern over the status of 54 Indian POWs languishing in Pakistani jails since 1971. The court had directed the government to pay the salary and retirement benefits to the dependents of the PoWs, to which the law officer had said this was being done.