Has the Supreme Court also become tongue-tied?

The Supreme Court’s dismissal of the petition, submitted to the three member bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y Chandrachud seeking to stop India from supplying weapons to Israel, has pained human rights activists inside and outside the country. The apex court rejected the petition, submitted by 11 eminent personalities including Ashok Kumar Sharma, former senior official of the Department of External Affairs, saying that Indian courts have no jurisdiction over the Sovereign State of Israel alongside adding that the court cannot interfere in India’s foreign policy. Representing the petitioners, advocate Prashant Bhushan made a strong case for stopping the arms supply by highlighting Israel’s continuing genocide flouting international law and human rights appeal. The court chose not to intervene in the matter, pointing out that it was only the assumption of the petitioners that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Given the fact that foreign policy comes under the purview of the government, it is technically correct to state how the court could interfere in it.

The Chief Justice’s stance that it is beyond the court to issue a judgment which is not constitutionally valid appears to be prima facie justifiable. However, it is pointed out in the petition that India is a signatory state to the 1948 Geneva Convention treaty for taking measures to stop genocide. The first paragraph of the text of the Geneva Convention directs members not to supply weapons to a country potentially committing war crimes. On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared that Israel violated the obligations linked to the Geneva Convention. The court ordered Israel to stop all its military campaign against the Palestinian people. Following which, UN experts in a statement warned countries against supplying weapons and equipment to Israel for violating basic human rights and international law. Given this, it is pointed out in the petition that Indian cannot supply any weapon or equipment to Israel as they may be used for war crimes. As pointed out earlier, the court dismissed the petition based entirely on technicality. Remember, India was the country to accept the UN resolution in December 2023 calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

India’s friendship with Israel, began after PV Narasimha Rao administration opened the diplomatic relations with the country in the 1990s, has progressed gradually over the years, reaching its peak as is being seen during the Modi government. While supporting Palestine people’s right to exist as an independent state, Modi government agrees that twin states is the only solution for the Israel Palestine conflict. Foreign Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar repeated this stand at the India-GCC summit held in Riyadh the other day. However, it did not take time for the Modi government to declare the attack unleashed by Hamas in Israel as terrorist attack. However, the United Nations or India has not designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The genocide that Benjamin Netanyahu’s Zionist administration continues without heeding to public opinion in Israel has brutally killed, as of writing this, 42,772 people. Among those killed are tens and thousands of women and children - well, what should we call this other than genocide? The Modi camp is asking how to reject Israel’s request after it had helped India with supplying warplanes during Kargil war against Pakistan. What is the justification for Netanyahu's brutality of killing off at least 662 people living peacefully in West Bank under the control of PLO, which is accepted even by India? Volker Türk , the chief of the Human Right Council, claimed at its meeting held in Geneva that at least 10,000 Palestinians are languishing in Israeli prisons. Is our government condoning this unilateral human rights violation also? Just as the military equipment, manufactured at Adani's and other private factories, are being shipped to the Jewish state with the Supreme Court remaining tongue-tied, what else can the land of Gandhi say but ‘ Wail my our country’ !