India ‘categorically rejects’ Court of Arbitration’s ‘supplemental award’ on Kishenganga, Ratle hydropower projects

India on Friday (June 27, 2025) “categorically rejected” the “supplemental award” by the Court of Arbitration on Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects, saying that it “never recognised” the Court of Arbitration, which is a “serious breach” of the Indus Waters Treaty which has been put “at abeyance” after the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.

“India has never recognised the existence in law of this so-called Court of Arbitration, and India’s position has all along been that the constitution of this so-called arbitral body is in itself a serious breach of the Indus Waters Treaty and consequently any proceedings before this forum and any award or decision taken by it are also for that reason illegal and per se void,” said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) after the World Bank’s Court of Arbitration gave a “supplemental award” on Kishenganga and Ratle projects in Jammu and Kashmir.

‘Unilateral action’

Pakistan had been raising objections regarding the design of Kishenganga-Ratle power projects in Jammu and Kashmir, and the two sides held multiple rounds of discussions to deal with Pakistan’s concerns till 2015. In 2016, Pakistan approached the World Bank to establish a Court of Arbitration to resolve these technical disputes. Pakistan took three issues concerning Kishenganga and four for the Ratle hydropower project to the Court of Arbitration. India’s position from the beginning regarding this Court of Arbitration was that it was a “unilateral action” by Pakistan to approach the World Bank.

Reflecting that position, the MEA said on Friday, “Today, the illegal Court of Arbitration, purportedly constituted under the Indus Waters Treaty 1960, albeit in brazen violation of it, has issued what it characterises as a “supplemental award” on its competence concerning the Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.”

The MEA reminded that after the Pahalgam terror attack, India has exercised “its rights as a sovereign nation under international law” and placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, “until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.“ The MEA described the Court of Arbitration’s latest declarations as a “charade at Pakistan’s behest”.

“Until such time that the Treaty is in abeyance, India is no longer bound to perform any of its obligations under the Treaty. No Court of Arbitration, much less this illegally constituted arbitral body, which has no existence in the eye of law, has the jurisdiction to examine the legality of India’s actions in exercise of its rights as a sovereign,” said the MEA, while dismissing the Court of Arbitration’s “supplemental award”.