India rejects arbitration court order on 1960 water-sharing pact with Pak

India on Monday categorically rejected the interim order of the “illegally constituted so-called” Permanent Court of Arbitration (CoA) in The Hague over the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the CoA “has no jurisdiction whatsoever” over India’s sovereign decisions. The MEA maintained that India’s decision to hold the IWT in abeyance remains in force.

In an interim order issued on Monday, the CoA said New Delhi must uphold its water-sharing treaty, the IWT, with Pakistan. The CoA said India must limit work on a hydroelectric plant it is building in the Kashmir region.

India suspended the IWT after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, 2025 in Jammu and Kashmir, where 26 people were killed by a terror outfit that New Delhi said had bases in Pakistan.

In the wake of the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “blood and water cannot flow together” to stress that India cannot maintain normal ties or water-sharing arrangements with Pakistan while Islamabad continued to sponsor cross-border terrorism. Subsequent to the terror attack, India launched ‘Operation Sindoor,’ targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The MEA in its statement said that pronouncements of the so-called CoA will have no effect on India’s actions in connection with the projects it is undertaking whether “now or in future”.

It said that India has never recognised the existence in law of the illegally-constituted and so-called CoA, and has consistently maintained that the very establishment of this alleged arbitral body constitutes a grave violation of the IWT. Accordingly, India has never appeared before this body and has refused to take any cognisance of its earlier pronouncements, it said.

The MEA said that the “so called” Court was constituted by the World Bank in patent breach of the terms of the IWT and India categorically rejects its so-called award, just as it has firmly rejected all prior pronouncements by this illegally constituted body.

In the wake of New Delhi suspending the IWT, Islamabad had denied any role in the Pahalgam terror attack and took legal action after India began work to boost reservoir holding capacity at two hydroelectric projects in the Kashmir region. The IWT was signed in 1960, and honoured by the two neighbours over the last 65 years.

In its interim order, the CoA said the IWT remained fully in force, as India had no justification for ending or suspending the agreement. “India must observe its obligations under the Treaty, including those relating to the design and operation of its hydro-electric projects on the Western Rivers,” the intergovernmental court said.

The court said India was not allowed to build the dam wall and power intake structure at the Ratle hydroelectric plant above certain levels until 90 days after the neutral expert’s final decision.