India Will Seek Annulment of Pak Military Court’s Death Sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav
India will seek annulment of the secret Pakistani military court’s death sentence for Kulbhushan Jadhav.
This was stated by Harish Salve, India’s counsel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), who indicated that seeking consular access to Jadhav may not be the priority now. “Pakistan should have granted consular access in March 2016, even before the beginning of the trial,” Mr Salve said.
He clarified that even though the court granted consular access to the Indian government, the access had come at a delayed stage.
India says the former navy officer was a businessman in Iran when he was kidnapped, taken to Pakistan and put on trial as a spy.
India’s fight for Jadhav rested on the argument of ‘restitution’ which basically meant that the verdict of the Pakistani military court which found Jadhav guilty needed to be ‘annulled’ and the trial started afresh, Mr Salve told Times Now.
The senior lawyer added that India’s plea in the ICJ had sought annulment of the Pakistani military court’s order.
He said that in principle, restitution could take on a larger dimension, perhaps suggesting that it might mean Jadhav’s release as well. If the very process was flawed, then the death sentence could not stand, he said.
However, Mr Salve noted that under the circumstances, he wasn’t sure if restitution would be entirely possible because it was a recent principle of jurisprudence and was still evolving.
Mr Salve added that consular access would be of no use if Pakistan decided to ignore the court’s verdict and went ahead with the execution.
However, he said the ICJ’s decision was binding.