\u2022 The court examined the potential grounds on which India can suspend or terminate the Treaty, including grounds cited by New Delhi in its public statements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 In a unanimous decision, the Court found that none of these grounds could justify suspension or termination of the Treaty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Accordingly, the Indus Waters Treaty remains fully in force, and India must observe its obligations under the Treaty, including those relating to the design and operation of its hydro-electric projects on the Western Rivers.<\/p>\n
\u2022 In the order on interim measures, the Court unanimously decided to grant three of the measures requested by Pakistan, subject to modifications made by the Court, and declined to grant two of the measures requested.<\/p>\n
Why India rejects the PCA order?<\/p>\n
\u2022 This Court was constituted by the World Bank in patent breach of the terms of the Treaty and India categorically rejected its so-called award, just as it has firmly rejected all prior pronouncements by this illegally constituted body, the MEA said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 India has never recognised the existence in law of this Court of Arbitration.<\/p>\n
\u2022 India has never appeared before this body and has refused to take any cognisance of its earlier pronouncements.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The MEA said the Court of Arbitration has no jurisdiction whatsoever to pronounce on India\u2019s sovereign decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"indus-waters-treaty-pakistan-16a\"](\"\/content\/dam\/yearbook\/learn\/world\/images\/2025\/May-2025\/indus-waters-treaty-pakistan-16a.jpg\"\/ "\\"indus-waters-treaty-pakistan-16a\\"")
<\/p>\n
What is Indus Waters Treaty?<\/p>\n
\u2022 India and Pakistan share the waters of six rivers \u2014 Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 The basin is mainly shared by India and Pakistan with a small share for China and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960 after nine years of negotiations between India and Pakistan with the help of the World Bank, which is also a signatory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Under the Treaty, the water from the three eastern rivers \u2014 Ravi, Sutlej and Beas \u2014 averaging around 33 million acre feet (MAF) were allocated to India for exclusive use.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The water from western rivers \u2014 Indus, Jhelum and Chenab \u2014 averaging to around 135 MAF were allocated to Pakistan except for specified domestic, non-consumptive and agricultural use permitted to India as provided in the Treaty.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Treaty also sets forth distinct procedures to handle issues which may arise: \u201cquestions\u201d are handled by the Commission, \u201cdifferences\u201d are to be resolved by a Neutral Expert, and \u201cdisputes\u201d are to be referred to a seven-member arbitral tribunal called the \u201cCourt of Arbitration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 As a signatory to the Treaty, the World Bank\u2019s role is limited and procedural.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Treaty sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two countries regarding their use of the rivers, known as the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), which has a commissioner from each country.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The two commissioners are required to meet at least once every year, alternately in India and Pakistan.<\/p>\n
The Permanent Court of Arbitration<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is an intergovernmental organisation established by the 1899 Hague Convention on the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes.<\/p>\n
\u2022 It provides a variety of dispute resolution services to the international community.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The PCA has 129 Contracting Parties.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Headquartered at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Netherlands, the PCA facilitates arbitration, conciliation, fact-finding, and other dispute resolution proceedings among various combinations of States, State entities, intergovernmental organisations, and private parties.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Beyond its headquarters in the Peace Palace in The Hague, the PCA has opened offices in various cities in order to make its services more accessible in different regions of the world.<\/p>\n
These are situated in:<\/p>\n
i) Buenos Aires (Argentina)<\/p>\n
ii) Ha Noi (Vietnam)<\/p>\n
iii) Mauritius<\/p>\n
iv) Singapore<\/p>\n
v) Vienna (Austria).<\/p>\n
(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2022 India rejected the Permanent Court of Arbitration\u2019s (PCA) order setting aside its decision to suspend the Indus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10415,10523,10409,10417,42],"class_list":["post-42099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-hague","tag-indus-waters-treaty","tag-ministry-of-external-affairs","tag-pakistan","tag-permanent-court-of-arbitration","tag-the-hague"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42099","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=42099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}