India’s Supreme Court dismisses plea to stop military exports to Israel

India’s top court has dismissed a petition seeking to suspend military exports from India following a plea from human rights activists and scholars to minimise India’s complicity in potential Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

In its ruling on Monday, India’s Supreme Court said it was beyond its jurisdiction to direct the government of India to halt the export of materials to any country.

The court said jurisdiction fell under the authority of the Union Government under Article 162 of the Indian constitution.

The top court also observed that intervening would amount to a judicial injunction for breach of contracts that the Indian companies may have entered into with international entities.

“The fallout of such breaches cannot be appropriately assessed by this court and would lay open Indian companies which have firm commitments into proceedings which may affect their own financial viability,” the court said.

The ruling comes after former bureaucrats, activists and senior academics filed a plea to the court arguing that sales were in violation of India’s obligations under international law and in breach of its own constitutional provisions of the right to life and equality, and the state’s duty to uphold international treaties.

The petition noted that three Indian companies dealing with the manufacture and export of arms and munitions have been granted licences for the export of arms and munitions to Israel as its war on Gaza continues.

Largest purchaser of Israeli weapons

Several universities are directly working with Israeli weapons companies as well as with Indian companies who have reportedly sent arms to Israel.

India was among the first countries to condemn the Hamas-led attacks on Israel last October. 

Since then, more than 40,000 people – most of them children and women – have been killed and close to 100,000 have been injured in Israel’s bombardment of the besieged enclave.

Despite the pressure on Delhi, the Indian government has not supported global calls for an arms embargo on Israel.

Several countries including Spain and Belgium have imposed arms embargos on Israel.

Last week, the United Kingdom government suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel.  

Though the move has been welcomed, observers described London’s move as a “drop in the ocean”.

“If, as this government acknowledges, there is a “clear risk” that certain military exports to Israel could be used to violate international humanitarian law then it must apply its own obligations fully and ban all arms sales,” Othman Moqbel wrote in Middle East Eye earlier this month.

In June, Daniel Carmon, a former Israeli ambassador to India, said India might be supplying weapons to Israel as a “sign of gratitude for Israeli assistance” during India’s limited war with Pakistan in 1999.