International Court of Justice and South Asia
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Breguet Atlantique, 1999
Dhananjay Mahapatra, Best of both worlds for India: Sorabjee, May 19, 2017: The Times of India
Former attorney general Soli Sorabjee was delighted with ace lawyer Harish Salve's success in convincing ICJ to direct Pakistan not to carry out Kulbhushan Jadhav's execution.
While Salve's arguments convinced ICJ that it had jurisdiction to entertain India's plea in the Jadhav case, Sorabjee had done just the opposite by convincing the court it had no jurisdiction to entertain Pakistan's plea against India.
On September 21, 1999, Pakistan had moved the ICJ with a plea to declare India responsible for downing its naval patrol plane, Breguet Atlantique, over the Rann of Kutch on August 10, 1999, months after the Kargil war. The IAF had dow ned the plane on the ground that it had violated Indian airspace and didn't turn back despite repeated warnings.
The ICJ on June 21, 2000 gave its verdict rejecting Pakistan's plea on the ground that the matter was covered by bilateral treaties between the two countries and those tools should be explored for settling the dispute.
By a 14-2 verdict, the ICJ had ruled in favour of India and said, “As regards India and Pakistan, that obligation was restated more particularly in the Simla Accord of July 2, 1972. Moreover, the Lahore Declaration of February 21, 1999 reiterated `the determination of both countries to implementing the Simla Agreement'. Accordingly , the court reminds the parties of their obligation to settle their dis putes by peaceful means, and in particular the dispute arising out of the aerial incident of August 10, 1999, in conformity with the obligations which they have undertaken.“
Salve's success also brought back fond memories to Sorabjee. Salve began his ca reer in law as a junior to Sorabjee and, incidentally , during the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, both were top law officers for India -Sorabjee was the attorney general and Salve the solicitor general.
Sorabjee told TOI, “In the Atlantique case, I as attorney general, successfully questioned the ICJ's jurisdiction in view of the reservations of India against Pakistan approaching the ICJ despite availability of bilateral mechanism for settling of the dispute.
In the Jadhav case, Salve has successfully argued for India that ICJ has jurisdiction to intervene alleging gross violation of Vienna Convention on Consular Access. Apparently , no two cases are same on facts, and apparently , India is having the best of both worlds.“
