Judgement gladdened our hearts, restored faith in rule of law: Salve expresses 'gratitude' to ICJ on Jadhav Verdict

Harish Salve, India's legal Counsel in Kulbhushan Jadhav case in the International Court of Justice expressed "gratitude" to the World Court for its intervention in the case.

"Want to start by expressing the gratitude of my country to the ICJ for the manner in which it intervened in this case. It protected Kulbhushan Jadhav from being executed, in a hearing which was put together in a matter of days," he said while addressing a press conference here soon after ICJ gave its verdict in the case.

"Today it has delivered a judgement which has gladdened our hearts and once again restored the faith in the rule of law in the International Court of Justice and in the systems which we as mankind have put together to protect the citizens of the world from state's tyranny," he added.

The senior lawyer said that India had challenged the conduct of Pakistan in its "brazen refusal to adhere to the Vienna Convention and to allow consular access to an Indian."

"Pakistan all along sought to use the proceedings to make allegations against India of state-sponsored terrorism. It repeatedly played out slides of what it claimed was passports recovered from Jadhav and asserted that India has to explain how this passport was put in place," he said.

Salve said the display of the passport led to the Court rejecting Pakistan's argument that Jadhav's nationality was uncertain.

"The court said that if you say that you recovered a passport..true or false which you rely on and it was issued by India, you could have no doubt that he was an Indian," said Salve.