New Delhi: A plea has moved in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to cancel licences and not to grant new ones to Indian firms exporting arms and other military equipment to Israel, which is fighting a war in Gaza.
The PIL filed through advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl Dsouza says India is obligated under the Genocide Convention (which India has signed and ratified) to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide. The plea said India cannot export any military equipment or weapons to Israel when there is a serious risk these weapons might be used to commit war crimes.
Since Hamas' October 7 attack, Israel has killed over 40,000 people in the beleaguered Gaza Strip, with women and children forming the majority of the casualties.
The plea filed by 11 people, including Ashok Kumar Sharma, a retired civil servant, said the supply of military equipment to Israel by companies, including a public sector enterprise, under the MoD violates India’s obligations under international law coupled with Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
The plea said at least three companies in India dealing with the manufacture and export of arms and munitions have been granted licenses for the export of arms and munitions to Israel, even during this period of the ongoing war in Gaza.
“These licences have been obtained from either the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) or the Department of Defence Production (DDP) that authorize the export of arms and munitions for dual use and specifically for military purposes," said the plea.
It said that in January 2024, Munition India Ltd., a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Defence, has been permitted to ship its products to Israel. In April, the company again applied to export the same product under a repeat order from Israel. “The approval of the same is under consideration by licensing authorities. The application was made to DGFT's Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies (SCOMET) division, which authorizes licences for the export of arms and munitions that come under the dual-use category”, said the plea.
The plea said a private Indian company, Premier Explosives Ltd. (PEL), has been exporting explosives and allied accessories to Israel under SCOMET licence from the DGFT at least since 2021. It added that PEL has been permitted to export these items three times at least since Israel’s war on Gaza began last year – with approvals on November 20, 2023, and February 1, 2024.
“Hyderabad-based joint venture, Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India Ltd. in which the Adani Group has a controlling stake has manufactured and exported munitions in the form of Indian-made aero-structures and subsystems purposed specifically for military use, for over 20 Hermes 900 UAVs/military drones to the Israeli military between 2019 and 2023”, said the PIL.
The plea said that international humanitarian law obligates states to recognize wars have limits and regulate the conduct of states. “India is bound by various international laws and treaties that obligate India not to supply military weapons to States guilty of war crimes, as any export could be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law”, it said.
"Issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ or direction to the respondents, Union of India, through its various organs, to cancel any existing licences and halt the grant of new licences/permissions, to various companies in India, for export of arms and other military equipment to Israel, during Israel’s war in Gaza, which is in violation India’s obligations under international law coupled with Articles 14 & 21 read with 51(c) of the Constitution of India," the plea said.
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