This refers to the editorial, “Shame heaped again” (May 12). India surprised Pakistan by moving the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. India's counsel has hit the nail on the head, by accusing Pakistan of “egregious violation” of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963, and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1974. For records, the country has converted the 1972 Shimla Agreement into a joke.
The orders of the ICJ, the principal judicial wing of the United Nations, is not binding but is influential and widely respected. India was forced to move the court, despite being a nation abhorring any third party intervention in its international disputes, as a last resort, after a fruitful settlement on Jadhav looked remote. India does not need to answer doubting Thomases because while agreeing to be a part of the ICJ jurisdiction in 1974, New Delhi had scored diplomatically by pre-conditioning the preclusion of the Kashmir issue being raised by Islamabad before the ICJ. India is hoping for a legal win.