Kulbhushan Jadhav Appeal In Court Was 'Carefully Considered': Government

New Delhi: The decision to move the International Court of Justice to order Pakistan to annul the death sentence of Indian Kulbhushan Jadhav on a charge of spying was a "carefully-considered decision to save the life of a son of India", the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

This is the first time in 45 years that New Delhi has gone to the world court established by the United Nations charter. The last was in 1971 when India had questioned the International Civil Aviation Organisation's powers to decide Pakistan's complaint about New Delhi denying its airlines from flying over India.

On Tuesday, the international court had admitted India's plea against the death sentence pronounced by a military court in Kulbhushan Jadhav case and told Islamabad to hold off on the execution till the case was decided. The 46-year-old was sentenced to death by a military court there.

"This is a course of action chosen after careful consideration to save the life of an Indian citizen, a son of India, who is in illegal detention and whose life is under threat," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay told reporters on Wednesday.

Mr Baglay indicated that the Indian request was grounded in Pakistan's refusal to implement the basic requirements under the Vienna Convention on consular matters.

Since 25 March last year when Pakistan had announced his arrest from Baluchistan and charged him for spying, India has made 16 requests for consular access, repeatedly sought access to court documents to be able to appeal against the death sentence and backed the Jadhav family's request for visas to meet him. In between, his mother had also sent a petition against the execution.

Mr Baglay said Pakistan did not provide the consular access, and gave no response on our demand for case papers. "There is no information on appeal by Jadhav's family against the order of the Pakistan military court.

The ruling is binding on Pakistan, says senior lawyer Harish Salve, who represents India at the International Court of Justice in Hague, Netherlands. The court is likely to take up the case next on May 15.

Both India and Pakistan have signed up for the "Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes, 1963," which says that such disputes are within the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court.