'Not our domain': India top court rejects petition to stop Israel arms sale

India's Supreme Court has dismissed a public interest litigation that sought an order for the federal government to halt licences to Indian firms exporting arms to Israel.

"We cannot enter into the nation's foreign policy domain," said a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and two other judges on Monday.

The bench said the Indian firms, involved in arms export, may be sued for breach of contractual obligations and hence they cannot be stopped from supplying.

"Can we direct that under the UN's genocide convention you ban the export to Israel. Why this restraint. This is because it impacts the foreign policy and we do not know what the impact will be," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted the judges as saying.

The Public Interest Litigation, filed by nearly a dozen people this month, had said: "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."

Earlier, a group of eminent citizens in India had written to the country's defence minister, calling on him to halt 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 Al Jazeera media group in an investigation claimed that New Delhi was supplying weapons to the country.

In June, former Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said that India might be supplying weapons to Israel as a "sign of gratitude for Israeli assistance" during the Kargil war of 1999 between India and Pakistan.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an October 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

The onslaught has resulted in nearly 41,000 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and nearly 94,761 injuries, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.