Harish Salve opens up on Kulbhushan Jadhav, Marshall Islands cases as he bags honour

Senior lawyer Harish Salve added another award to his illustrious career when he was honoured with the ‘For the Sake of Honour’ by the Rotary Club of Madras. There was a showering of praises for him on the occasion, from his ‘guru’, former Attorney General of India K Parasaran, and colleague, former Solicitor General of India, Mohan Parasaran. Among the other highlights of the event was Salve opening up on his representation for India in the much controversial cases of the Marshall Islands nuclear arms dispute and the Kulbhushan Jadhav death sentence, both of which he succeeded in obtaining a favourable verdict for the country.

Harish Salve on controversial cases

Harish Salve had shared how the blessing of his gurus like K Parasaran, had proved to be massive for his career, and bringing him numerous opportunities. He then highlighted the opportunity to represent India in the Marshall Islands case in the International Court of Justice.

Salve said, "It is not something written much of is in public domain, that India’s entire nuclear policy had been put into issue. A injunction was sought from the ICJ., that India be asked to discontinue its development of nuclear arms and put in place a disarmament schedule. Fortunately we won the case on technical grounds. They were asking for a inventory of India’s nuclear armament, and it would have led to an inquiry." 

Marshall Islands had in 2016 moved the UN's International Court of Justice in The Hague against India accusing it of failing to halt the nuclear arms race. The tiny South Pacific state began legal proceedings against India at the United Nations' highest court, as part of cases against three of the world's nuclear powers -- India, Pakistan and the UK -- in a bid to infuse new life into disarmament negotiations. 

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) threw out landmark cases brought by the tiny Marshall Islands against India, Pakistan and Britain for allegedly failing to halt the nuclear arms race. "The court upholds the objection to the jurisdiction raised by each of the countries, presiding judge Ronny Abraham had said in separate rulings.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup had then, "We believe the judgment vindicates our responsible and principled approach to nuclear disarmament." 

Speaking on the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, Salve called it as an 'unusual opportunity.' He added, "When Pakistan sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav to death, it was a matter that was fiercely debated by the Indian media. When someone asked me my comment, I in an off-handed way stated that there was something that we could do, and approach the ICJ against such kind of travesty. Next morning, I got a call from late Sushma (Swaraj) Ji, and she said, 'you have said something on TV, the PM’s office has picked it up and called me, so you better deliver.' I said, 'I have no idea, this is not my subject.' She just said, 'you have to deliver.'  

He continued, "So I sat and researched, her team researched and we came up with the argument of the Vienna convention, we moved this application. I must share that despite all these years of practice, and having seen it all 4 years ago, the kind of pressure I found myself, was because I was told that, it was on my assurance that it was a good case. That India is moving away from its policy of never taking its issue with Pakistan to any external institution, was told Indian was shifting from bilateralism for the first time in its foreign policy and if something goes wrong they will be held to pay."

The former Solicitor General of India added, "Fortunately we got a quick hearing. We got an interim injunction, once that happened I was lot more confident, we then fought the case and the result was there for everybody to see."

He also said, "It was a great experience, it was a learning on so many things, the style of presentation was so different. We had to write the speech. The biggest challenge in oral advocacy is keeping the 26 judges awake when you're reading, you have to modulate your voice and make gestures, for them to not sleep because they have the copy of the speech in their hand anyway. Timing is by the clock, so for the first time I had to write the speech and practice reading it with a clock so that you know exactly how long it is going to take."

Harish Salve said, "The result came out well, India was vindicated, we had success and we are seeing how we can take it, I hope not, but at some stage, we may have to go back to the ICJ, but at least he (Jadhav) is alive. It is an international case so Pakistan has to ensure that he will have to keep in good health till further steps are taken. Hopefully some good will come out of it."

"More important thing for me personally as a lawyer was that I tried to persuade the court to read in human rights principles into the construction of the Vienna convention and to an extent, we succeeded," he said.

Jadhav, the 50-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017. India approached the International Court of Justice against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sentence.

The Hague-based ICJ ruled in July 2019 that Pakistan must undertake an "effective review and reconsideration" of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant consular access to India without further delay.

(With PTI inputs)