New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday asked the Centre for a status report on 54 defence personnel who were languishing in Pakistani jails for over 40 years as prisoners of war (PoWs).
The bench of Chief Justice R M Lodha, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman also made it clear that courts had no role in bilateral relations between India and Pakistan and no accord signed between them was subject to judicial examination.
The Court said it wanted to know how many defence personnel were lodged in Pakistani jails. “Many of them might have died by now,” it said. Stating that 40 years was a “pretty long” time, the court told the government it was for it to weigh the pros and cons and decide. The position of the 54 Indian soldiers in Pakistani jails as PoWs was reiterated by the Centre in an affidavit before the Gujarat High Court in 2010. Seeking the status of the soldiers and the efforts made to secure their release, the court said may be some of them were not alive.
Seeking a fresh affidavit from the government, the court wanted to know the latest position as it has been four years since the last affidavit was filed by the Centre on the issue before the Gujarat High Court.
The court said this during the hearing of a petition by the Centre challenging the Gujarat High Court order by which it had in December 2011 asked the Centre to move the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the breach of the Simla Agreement for not releasing Indian soldiers in Pakistan’s custody.
Appearing for the Centre, counsel K Radhakrishnan told the court there was a Simla Agreement between India and Pakistan and since both were members of the Commonwealth, thus any issue rooted in that accord between the two countries could not be raised before the ICJ. IANS
