New Delhi says the Permanent Court of Arbitration has no jurisdiction over its sovereign choices following the suspension of the accord over Kashmir security concerns.<\/p>\n
By Al Jazeera Staff and Reuters<\/p>\n
Published On 31 Aug 202631 Aug 2026<\/p>\n
India has rejected a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ordering it to uphold the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, saying the tribunal has no jurisdiction over the matter.<\/p>\n
India suspended the treaty in April last year after identifying two of three assailants as Pakistani in an attack that killed 26 people at a Kashmir tourist destination. Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack.<\/p>\n
Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
The standoff places the decades-long conflict over Kashmir as the primary trigger behind the collapse of the historic water pact, pushing a framework that had endured three wars past its breaking point. Under the 1960 agreement, these shared river systems feed 80 percent of Pakistan\u2019s agricultural land.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s rejection follows the international court\u2019s ruling on Monday that the pact remains fully binding and that India had no justification for ending or suspending it.<\/p>\n
The tribunal ordered India to limit construction on the Ratle Hydro-Electric Plant in Kashmir, prohibiting work on the dam wall and power intake structure above certain levels. These restrictions will remain in place until 90 days after a World Bank-appointed neutral expert delivers a decision, expected by July 2027.<\/p>\n
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs, however, said the country does not recognise the court and \u201ccategorically\u201d rejected the verdict.<\/p>\n
India is officially a member of the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis so-called Court of Arbitration has no jurisdiction whatsoever to pronounce on India\u2019s sovereign decisions,\u201d the ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts pronouncements, now or in the future, will have no effect on India\u2019s actions in connection with the projects being undertaken by India.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pakistan welcomed the tribunal\u2019s interim measures and said that its government is carefully considering the details of the decision to determine how it can best assist in finding a pathway back to engagement under the treaty\u2019s binding legal obligations.<\/p>\n
Islamabad mounted the legal action after India began work last year to boost reservoir holding capacity at two hydroelectric projects in the Kashmir region. Pakistan viewed the expansion as a first tangible step by India to operate outside agreements covered by the treaty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Delhi says the Permanent Court of Arbitration has no jurisdiction over its sovereign choices following the suspension…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7569,26862,2879,653,2219,26863,26864,131,10409,42,593],"class_list":["post-41867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-hague","tag-asia","tag-border-disputes","tag-conflict","tag-courts","tag-india","tag-india-pakistan-tensions","tag-kashmir","tag-news","tag-pakistan","tag-the-hague","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}