Noting that the State should be concerned about its missing citizens, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to submit the current status of the 54 Indians prisoners of war (PoW) believed to be languishing in Pakistan jails as per a list prepared by the Indian government way back in 1985.
A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha was hearing a batch of petitions raising the lack of information about prisoners of war believed to be held captive in the various jails of the neighbouring country.
The petitions include one by the father of Captain Saurabh Kalia, a Kargil hero, who was captured along with five other soldiers of his patrolling team in May 1999 and another by one Sarwa Mitter about the beheading and mutilation of bodies of two Indian soldiers in 2013.
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The Bench wondered why the government had not approached the International Court of Justice all these years to know about the fate of the POWs citing the spoiling of bilateral relations with Pakistan. “When state subjects are missing, the state has to be concerned,” Chief Justice Lodha said.
To this, senior counsel K. Radhakrishnan, appearing for the government, said it is “very concerned.”
“We would like to know what is the stand of the new regime. There is a saying that if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change,” Justice Kurian Joseph, on the Bench, said.
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The court asked the government to file an affidavit within six weeks detailing the steps taken to secure their release from Pakistan. It wondered how many would be alive by now. CJI Lodha said “it is a sorry state of affairs.”
When Mr. Radhakrishnan argued that “rows between India and Pakistan can only be governed by the Shimla pact under which all issues are to be settled bilaterally and no party can approach the ICJ unilaterally,” the court responded that the government should then take the initiative.
“Why don’t you give it a try? Why do you foresee Pakistan will not concede the demand? Life is a roller-coaster,” the CJI said.