India Rejects Hague Court Order on Indus Waters Treaty, Says Pact Will Remain in Abeyance
India has rejected a major ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that declared the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan remains fully in force. New Delhi said the tribunal has “no jurisdiction whatsoever” over India’s sovereign decisions and described the arbitration body as illegally constituted.
The Hague-based tribunal had ruled on August 31 that India could not unilaterally place the treaty in abeyance. It concluded that none of the grounds cited by New Delhi—including national sovereignty, terrorism and changing environmental and developmental circumstances—provided a legal basis for suspending the agreement.
India, however, maintains that its April 2025 decision to put the treaty in abeyance remains fully valid. The Ministry of External Affairs said the court’s pronouncements would have no effect on India’s actions concerning its water-related projects.
The dispute dates back to April 2025, when India suspended the treaty following the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 people. New Delhi linked the attack to Pakistan-based elements, while Islamabad denied involvement. India subsequently declared that the water-sharing arrangement would remain suspended until Pakistan took credible and irreversible action against cross-border terrorism.
The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered with World Bank involvement and signed in 1960, has governed the use of six rivers despite repeated military conflicts between India and Pakistan. Pakistan relies heavily on the river system, with the treaty’s waters supporting roughly 80% of its agricultural land.
The latest ruling arose after Pakistan initiated arbitration proceedings over India’s actions at hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir. India did not participate in the proceedings because it disputes the tribunal’s jurisdiction and has consistently refused to recognise this particular Court of Arbitration.
The tribunal nevertheless proceeded with the case and issued a unanimous decision. It said the Indus Waters Treaty remains binding and that India must comply with its provisions governing the design and operation of hydroelectric projects on the western rivers flowing into Pakistan.
The ruling also contains a specific order concerning the Ratle Hydroelectric Project on the Chenab River. India has been prohibited from carrying out certain construction activities, including concreting portions of the dam wall and power-intake structure above specified levels, pending a decision by a separate neutral expert.
Those restrictions are expected to remain in place until 90 days after the neutral expert issues a final decision on whether the Ratle project’s design complies with the treaty. That decision is expected in July 2027.
Pakistan has welcomed the Hague decision as an important legal victory. Islamabad has said it is studying the ruling and its implications for restoring engagement under what it considers the treaty’s continuing binding obligations.
For India, however, the ruling does not change its stated policy. New Delhi argues that a tribunal whose jurisdiction it never accepted cannot compel India to reverse a sovereign decision taken on national-security grounds.
The immediate consequence is therefore a widening gap between the international arbitration position and India’s own legal and diplomatic position. The tribunal says the treaty continues to operate; India says the treaty remains in abeyance and that the tribunal’s decision has no authority over it.
The confrontation could have consequences well beyond the current arbitration. The Indus system is central to Pakistan’s agriculture and water security, while India is seeking greater flexibility to develop hydroelectric capacity and reservoir infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir.
The dispute also adds another highly sensitive dimension to already strained India-Pakistan relations. What was once regarded as one of the few enduring institutional arrangements between the two countries is now at the centre of a direct confrontation involving terrorism, sovereignty, international law and control over shared river waters.
For now, neither side appears ready to accept the other’s position. The Hague ruling gives Pakistan an international legal finding in its favour, while India’s rejection means the practical implementation of that ruling remains deeply contested.
