ICJ likely to hear Jadhav case in Feb 2019

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has fixed February 2019 for hearing the case of retired Indian Naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav.

The ICJ turned down Pakistan's request for an early date for hearing while fixing February 2019. Attributing to sources, Geo News reported that the international court would hear the case on a daily basis for a week between February 19-25.

Last month, Pakistan had filed its second counter-memorial. As part of the reply, they refuted Indian allegations that Jadhav's wife and mother were mistreated when they visited him last year, according to a report of the Express Tribune.

On April 10 last year, a Pakistan military court pronounced death sentence to Jadhav. Subsequently, on May 8 India approached the ICJ for egregious violations of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963 by Pakistan in the matter. On May 18, the court passed an order obligating Islamabad not to carry out the sentence that was awarded to Jadhav.

On September 13 last year, India had filed written pleadings (Memorial) in connection with the case and Pakistan filed its counter-memorial in December that year.

Pakistan has claimed that Jadhav was arrested from Balochistan for alleged involvement in espionage and subversive activities for India's intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). New Delhi maintains that Jadhav was a former naval officer, and after retiring from the Indian Navy, he was in Iran for business interests when he was kidnapped.