International Court to deliver verdict on July 17 in Kulbhushan Jadhav case
New Delhi, Jul 4: The Hague-based International Court of Justice on Thursday said it will deliver on July 17 its verdict in the case relating to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is on death row in Pakistan.
Jadhav, a 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 ICJ in May 2017 against Pakistan for denying consular access to Jadhav.
India had also challenged the "farcical trial" by the military court of Pakistan against 48-year-old Jadhav. The ICJ on May 18, 2017 had restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav till adjudication of the case.
The ICJ, in a statement, said a public sitting will take place at 3 pm (6.30 pm IST) on July 17 at the Peace Palace in The Hague, during which Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, the President of the Court, will read out the verdict.
The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established by the UN charter in June 1945 and it began its activities in April 1946. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
The court held a four-day public hearing in the case in February during which both India and Pakistan submitted their detailed pleas and responses.
India based its case on two broad issues breach of the Vienna Convention on consular access and the process of resolution. It also urged the ICJ to annul Jadhav's death sentence and order his immediate release, saying the verdict by a Pakistani military court based on a "farcical trial" and it failed to satisfy even the minimum standards of due process.
Pakistan on its part insisted that the Indian Navy officer was a "spy" and not a businessman.
Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he reportedly entered from Iran
However, India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy. Jadhav's sentencing had evoked a sharp reaction in India
Pakistan had rejected India's plea for consular access to Jadhav at the ICJ, claiming that New Delhi wants to get the information gathered by its "spy".
However, Pakistan facilitated a meeting of Jadhav with his mother and wife in Islamabad on December 25, 2017.
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Broken relationships don't automatically amount to abetment of suicide: SC
New Delhi (PTI): Broken relationships, while emotionally distressing, do not automatically amount to abetment of suicide in the absence of intention leading to the criminal offence, the Supreme Court on Friday said.
The observations came from a bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan in a judgement, which overturned the conviction of one Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi by the Karnataka High Court for the offences of cheating and abetment of suicide under the IPC.
"This is a case of a broken relationship, not criminal conduct," the judgment said.
Sanadi was initially charged under Sections 417 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 376 (rape) of the IPC.
While the trial court acquitted him of all the charges, the Karnataka High Court, on the state's appeal, convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide, sentencing him to five years imprisonment and imposing Rs 25,000 in fine.
According to the FIR registered at the mother's instance, her 21-year-old daughter was in love with the accused for the past eight years and died by suicide in August, 2007, after he refused to keep his promise to marry.
Writing a 17-page judgement, Justice Mithal analysed the two dying declarations of the woman and noted that neither was there any allegation of a physical relationship between the couple nor there was any intentional act leading to the suicide.
The judgement therefore underlined broken relationships were emotionally distressing, but did not automatically amount to criminal offences.
"Even in cases where the victim dies by suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim," said the apex court.
The court further said, "Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC.”
The judgement said there was no evidence to suggest that the man instigated or provoked the woman to die by suicide and underscored a mere refusal to marry, even after a long relationship, did not constitute abetment.
