India Refuses To Engage With Hague Court On Indus Water Treaty

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI – India has firmly said it will not recognize or participate in proceedings initiated by a Court of Arbitration in The Hague under the Indus Waters Treaty, asserting that the treaty has been placed in abeyance and that the tribunal itself lacks legitimacy.

The position comes as the Hague based court continues to push ahead with hearings and document requests under the Indus Waters Treaty framework. New Delhi has made it clear that it will neither engage with the process nor respond to any communications from the tribunal.

India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty on April 23, 2025, a day after 26 civilians were killed in Pahalgam in an attack that Indian authorities linked to Pakistan based terrorists. For the first time since the treaty was signed in 1960, New Delhi directly tied water cooperation to what it describes as Pakistan’s continued use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

Since then, Pakistan has stepped up diplomatic and legal efforts, including approaching international forums and initiating multiple legal actions, arguing that India’s move endangers its water security. Pakistan depends heavily on the Indus river system, with an estimated 80 to 90 per cent of its agriculture linked to the basin and limited water storage capacity heightening its concerns.

Government sources told NDTV that the “so called illegally constituted” Court of Arbitration is running “parallel proceedings” alongside the neutral expert mechanism already предусмотрed under the treaty. Because India does not accept the court’s legitimacy, the sources said, it does not consider itself bound to reply to its notices or orders.

In orders issued at Pakistan’s request, the court warned that it could draw “adverse inferences” from India’s non compliance or attempt to obtain the same documents through neutral expert proceedings. It also stated that India’s decision to place the treaty in abeyance does not, in its view, affect the court’s competence, a claim New Delhi has explicitly rejected.