INDIA on Monday rejected the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s order setting aside its decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, saying the “illegally-constituted” body has no jurisdiction to comment on New Delhi’s sovereign decisions. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India’s decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance remains in force. New Delhi decided to put the IWT in abeyance as part of a series of punitive diplomatic and economic measures unveiled soon after the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year that killed 26 civilians. India has never recognised the “existence in law of this illegally-constituted and so-called Court of Arbitration”, and has always said the “very establishment of this alleged arbitral body constitutes a grave violation of the IndusWatersTreaty”, the MEA said in a statement. Pakistan had approached the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in March this year to determine the status of the treaty virtually challenging India’s action.

 

“Today, the illegally constituted so-called Court of Arbitration (CoA) has issued what it termed as an award concerning Interim Measures and Status of the Indus Waters Treaty. This so called Court was constituted by the World Bank in patent breach of the terms of the Treaty and India categorically rejects its so-called award, just as it has firmly rejected all prior pronouncements by this illegally constituted body,” the MEA said. “Accordingly, India has never appeared before this body and has refused to take any cognisance of its earlier pronouncements,” it said. The MEA said the Court of Arbitration has “no jurisdiction whatsoever to pronounce on India’s sovereign decisions.” “Its pronouncements, now or in the future, will have no effect on India’s actions in connection with the projects being undertaken by India,” it said. In the last few months, India has stepped up work on several hydropower projects in J&K that Pakistan had opposed under the provisions of the pact signed in 1960.