What was done in 43 years to get back 54 PoWs from Pakistan, SC asks Centre

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to furnish details of the steps it had taken to secure release of 54 Indian armed forces personnel held by Pakistan as prisoners of war (PoW) for the last 43 years.
“Can India not approach International Court of Justice against Pakistan for serious violation of human rights? Does the new regime have a different approach to tackle the issue? List of these 54 PoWs was prepared in 1985.How many of them are still alive, as 29 years is a long time,” asked a bench of Chief Justice R M Lodha and Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman.
The court’s questions were directed at senior advocate K Radhakrishnan as no central law officer was present to deal with the serious issue raised in a bunch of petitions. They had sought a direction to the Centre to raise the PoW issue with the ICJ.
One of the petitioners was the father of Captain Saurabh Kalia, who along with five members of the Army’s patrol team was captured by Pakistani army in 1999. They were tortured and their mutilated bodies were handed over to India during the Kargil war, sparking international outrage. Captain Kalia’s father too had sought a direction to the Union government to take Pakistan to ICJ for the outrageous acts.
Radhakrishnan said there was no change in the Centre’s international policy despite change of regime. It said the Union government had uniformly held that all outstanding issues, including the one raised in the petition, should be solved bilaterally as was resolved by India and Pakistan under the 1971 Shimla Agreement.
He said India had cited the Shimla Agreement before the ICJ to successfully thwart Islamabad’s attempt to seek $60 million compensation from India by instituting a suit in ICJ accusing Indian Air Force of downing Pakistan navy plane ‘Breguet Atlantique’ over Rann of Kutch on August 10, 1999, a month after Kargil war. The ICJ had ruled that it had no jurisdiction over the dispute because of the bilateral treaty.
Radhakrishnan informed the court that New Delhi feared that if it approached the ICJ for release of PoWs despite Shimla Agreement, then Islamabad would be encouraged to raise the Kashmir issue in similar international fora.
The bench understood the sensitivity of the issue but asked, “Can there be no change of approach from the new regime relating to release of the PoWs?” Radhakrishnan said the government was aware of the importance of the issue and had been continuously taking up the prisoners of war issue with Pakistan from time to time.
The bench asked the Centre to file an affidavit in six weeks informing about the status of the PoWs and the steps taken towards securing their release. “The government has so many means to find out about the status of the PoWs,” the bench said.