India's Supreme Court issues ruling in case to halt arms supplies to Israel

India's Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking an order from the federal government to stop licenses to Indian companies that export arms to Israel.

“We cannot enter into the foreign policy of the country,” said the bench, comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and two other judges.

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The court added that Indian companies involved in arms exports could be sued for breach of contractual obligations and therefore could not be prevented from supplying.

"Can we order a ban on the export of these products to Israel under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide? Why this restriction? It is because it affects foreign policy and we do not know what impact it may have," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted the judges as saying.

“India is bound by various international laws and treaties that require the country not to supply military weapons to countries guilty of war crimes, as any exports could be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,” said the public interest litigation, filed by nearly a dozen people this month.

Earlier, a group of prominent Indian citizens wrote to the country's defence minister, asking him to stop the licensing process that enables exporters to send arms and ammunition to Israel.

While the government has not issued any statements regarding arms supplies to Israel, the Qatari media group Al Jazeera had indicated in an investigation that New Delhi was supplying Tel Aviv with weapons.

Last June, former Israeli ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said that “India may supply Israel with weapons as a token of gratitude for Israeli assistance during the 1999 Kargil War between India and Pakistan.”

Israel, which has ignored a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, has faced international condemnation amid its ongoing deadly assault on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

The attack resulted in the killing of more than 41,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and the injury of approximately 94,761 others, while more than 10,000 others are still missing.

The ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, destroying large parts of the area.

Israel faces charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians took refuge before the invasion of the area on May 6.