Kulbhushan Jadhav case: Arguments conclude, long wait for justice begins

The four-day hearing in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice will conclude on Thursday with both India and Pakistan making their final submissions.

Now, it will be a long wait for the sentence. On an average, it takes at least six months for judges to deliberate and come to a verdict.

After both parties conclude their arguments, judges usually deliberate the case and discuss the questions the case raises. The junior-most judge in the hierarchy would be invited to make his or her arguments first. That way, he or she would have had the chance to speak his/her mind before all the seniors reveal how they think. 

A drafting committee is formed then and the judges usually draft their opinions. The matter is put to vote and the majority opinion prevails. However, in the case of a tie, the president has a casting vote. In an effort to bring his colleagues around to a unanimous verdict, the president usually helps bring both sides—in case of differing opinions—together to cobble together a compromise. 

In the Jadhav case, Pakistani judge Tassaduq Hussain Jilliani was sworn in as an ad-hoc judge on the last day of the hearing. On the first day on Monday, he was dramatically taken away from the courthouse as he had the flu, which worsened after he came to the court. 

Pakistan had argued that it has the right to have a judge of its choosing, especially since India already has a judge on the bench, Dalveer Bhandari.  As Judge Jilliani is indisposed, the co-agent Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan asked for a short adjournment of the case to ensure fairness. On Wednesday, however, the court assured Pakistan that despite Jilliani was absent from the hearings, he could still be included in the deliberation. All the transcripts have been shared with Jilliani and he could watch the proceedings on the ICJ website, too.