Instead, after a hiatus of close to 18 years, the two nations once again found themselves in the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Jadhav was denied consular access despite over a dozen requests by Indian authorities in the weeks and months after his arrest. Unlike the Vienna Convention, this bilateral agreement does not provide for the submission of disputes to the International Court. The bilateral agreement provides, somewhat ambiguously, that for arrests made on “political or security grounds”, the state may “examine the case on its merits”. However, beneath the legal complexities of whether or not the bilateral agreement overrides the Vienna Convention lie a catalogue of procedural irregularities.

Source: Indian Express May 17, 2017 18:38 UTC