The United Nation’s top court ‘International Court of Justice’ (ICJ) in its verdict pronounced on March 16 ordered Russia to immediately suspend its ‘military operations’ in Ukraine.
- By a vote of 13/2, the International Court of Justice further called on both the parties concerned to ‘refrain from any action which might aggravate or extend the dispute.’
- The two dissent votes came from Vice President Kirill Gevorgian from Russia and Judge Xue Hanqin from China.
India’s Dalveer Bhandari voted against Russia
- While, India’s judge, Justice Dalveer Bhandari, voted against Russia.
- At the UN General Assembly on 2 March, India urged both sides to focus on diplomacy to end the war and abstained from voting on the matter. India has so far abstained from voting on all key resolutions pertaining to the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
- Unlike in the UN, in the ICJ, there is no option of abstention.
- Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said at a media briefing that “ICJ judges vote in their individual capacities and they vote on the merits of that”.
- Justice Bhandari is in ICJ as an independent judge. His orders there do not speak for India’s opinion on international issues.
- Apart from Justice Bhandari, those who voted against the Russian offensive were judges from the US, Australia, Germany, Japan, Slovakia, Morocco, France, Brazil, Somalia, Uganda, Jamaica and Lebanon.
ICJ’s ruling is binding
- The ICJ may entertain two types of cases: legal disputes between States submitted to it by them (contentious cases) and requests for advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by United Nations organs and specialized agencies (advisory proceeding.
- Only States (States Members of the United Nations and other States which have become parties to the Statute of the Court or which have accepted its jurisdiction under certain conditions) may be parties to contentious cases.
- After the oral proceedings the Court deliberates in camera and then delivers its judgment at a public sitting.
- The judgment is final, binding on the parties to a case and without appeal (at the most it may be subject to interpretation or, upon the discovery of a new fact, revision).
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