Personally satisfied that Pak used lot of 'adjectives' in its submission, says Harish Salve

Harish Salve, India's legal counsel who represented the country in Kulbhushan Jadhav case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), expressed "satisfaction" over the "adjectives" used by Pakistan in its submission in the court.

"I have a degree of personal satisfaction that a lot of adjectives were used by Pakistan in its submissions even in its reply in the court. I characterised them as unfortunate and I said that it is my upbringing and India's tradition which stood in my way of replying to them in that language," he said while addressing a press conference here.

India's legal counsel said that Pakistan raised three "preliminary objections."

"In course of its exchange with India, where India repeatedly sought consular access..at one stage.... based on the extracted confession which Pakistan played over and over again in the media...Pakistan told India that they had registered an FIR," Salve said.

"In the ICJ, Pakistan also ran the case that India had not cooperated in the case and therefore, India should not be heard to complain of violations of Vienna Convention. This argument has been rejected. Pakistan had based allegations of what we as lawyers call abuse of process and said that it was another ground why India should not be allowed the relief it seeks. That has been rejected," he said.

The senior lawyer said that the Court held that Pakistan is guilty of internationally "wrongful" acts of a continuing character and it must seize the acts.

"I think in the language of diplomacy which is the language of ICJ, this is a stringent indictment. Personally, as a lawyer, I am delighted that the court has upheld our argument that while construing the Vienna Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) must inform its interpretation," he said.

"All this has led to the court giving us the final relief. We had ambitiously asked for an annulment, the court said we can't annul but they have said Pakistan has to do everything that made the Vienna Convention a living reality," said Salve.

He also said Pakistan has to allow "review and reconsideration."

"They have rejected the argument that clemency is reformed review and reconsideration. They have not accepted that the resort to judicial review in Pakistan's court is good enough and that is why they have said that you must allow review and reconsideration. As I read the judgement, the critical point of review and reconsideration is that he has to be allowed consular access," Salve said.

The ICJ on Wednesday asked Pakistan to review its order of death sentence awarded to Jadhav on alleged charges of espionage and conspiracy against Pakistan.

The 49-year-old was purportedly "arrested" from Balochistan by Pakistani security forces on March 3, 2016, after he allegedly entered the country from Iran as claimed by Islamabad.

India has held that Pakistan, which faces several problems on its border with Iran, has been using Jadhav's case to blame India for its problems in Balochistan. It has used proxy groups such as Jaish al Adl against Iran, while Iranian officials have spoken of Pakistan's sponsorship of terror activities along Iran-Pakistan border.

It was on March 25, 2016, that then Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, had informed the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad of Jadhav's "arrest."

Since then, Pakistan has not offered any explanation as to why Islamabad took over three weeks to inform the Indian High Commissioner about Jadhav's arrest.

Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on April 11, 2017.

Following this, India on May 8, 2017, approached the ICJ against Pakistan "for egregious violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963" in the matter.

India alleged that Pakistan is in breach of Article 36(1) (b) of the Vienna Convention, which obliged Pakistan to inform India of the arrest of Jadhav "without delay".