Ceasefire Violation, What Can Supreme Court Do?
There have been numerous accounts where the ceasefire between India and Pakistan has been violated by Pakistan. The number of casualties increasing considerably has left everyone concerned about the army protecting the borders and civilians living nearby.
The ceasefire pact of 2003 has aggressively ignored by Pakistan and many Army and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel have been killed along with civilians too at times. The latest violation was seen on Tuesday (27/03/2018) when the firing from across the border on Line of Control (LOC) in Poonch district started at 8:30 p.m. and continued for about half an hour. Before that on 18th march, a mortar shell fired by Pakistan army hit a residential house in Balakote sector of Poonch district killing seven people.
It is very understandable that the Indian citizens will be concerned because of this. Therefore, recently the Supreme Court of India received a PIL seeking the court to take this matter of ceasefire violation before the International Court of Justice.
The petition has been filed By Nowhera Shaik, a social worker and businesswoman hailing from Hyderabad. The case is being argued by advocate J.P Dhanda.
Whereas many advocates are supporting the PIL and hoping for some action from the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice Dipak Mishra was seen asking “how can we get into all these? What kind of PIL is this? How can we do all this? Try to understand. Should India go to International Court of Justice or not, how can we issue a mandamus on such a subject?”
The question as to what can Supreme Court do is stumping.
Various prayers were made in the petition including issuing a writ to command the respondents to take this matter of ceasefire violation before the International Court of Justice and to appoint a Committee of Legal Experts to prosecute the case of violation of ceasefire agreement.
The last time India approached ICJ was for Kulbhushan Jadhav case in 2017 and ICJ decided in favour of India and before that it was in 1999 when Islamabad sought its intervention over the shooting down of its naval aircraft and claimed damages, the ICJ dismissed the case on the grounds of jurisdiction.
There are various reasons that ceasefire between the two nations is violated but these recent violations can be linked to scheduled talks between the two nations that are set to start today.
The two nations will hold over the sharing of river waters in New Delhi starting today (29/03/2018). This is to be the 114th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) that handles the sharing of the waters of the Indus since the treaty was signed by the two countries in 1960, negotiated with the help of World Bank.
By –Neha Bargotra
Student Reporter, INBA