New Delhi: The Union Government of India on Friday filed an application before the Supreme Court saying that it is accepting and abiding the recent order of Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) and asked to dispose the criminal proceedings pending against two Italian Marines in connection with the firing of Indian fishing boat on Kerala shores on February 15, 2012.
The PCA order held that India is entitled to get compensation for the life and property loss from Italy.
“The Union of India will accept and abide the order of the tribunal that held India entitled to get compensation from Italy and that is also precluding India from exercising its jurisdiction over the marines,” the petition submitted by India read.
Also, the Union Government submitted that as per the order of International Tribunal for Law of the Sea (ITLOS) asked both Italy and India to give up all their proceedings in their courts.
Read: Int'l tribunal upheld conduct of authorities in Italian tanker case: MEA
It might be recalled that the Supreme Court has deferred all proceedings pending in India on September 2015.
The tribunal had passed an award earlier saying that Italy has breached Article 87, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph (a), and Article 90 of the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It also held that Indian’s act had not breached (UNCLOS) by detaining Enrica Lexie at Kochi port post-firing.
Therefore, this matter further went to another level as both countries were called for the consultation to reach an amicable solution on the amount of compensation due to India.
The tribunal also directed that Indian should not exercise its criminal jurisdiction over the marine.
With this, India approached the SC saying that shall accept and abide by the award of the tribunal and stated that pending proceedings before the SC can be disposed off.
“The Applicant( GOI) states and submit that the Applicant is, therefore, placing this Tribunal Award on record with a prayer that the proceedings with regard to the incident dated 15.2.2012 be disposed of in conformity with the Award passed by the aforesaid Tribunal on 21.5.2020," it said.
It is noted three matters are pending before the SC pertaining to the Italy Marines case.
Also read: 2012 naval dispute: UN court rejects Italy's claim of compensation from India
