Judgment delayed
Dhaka has not yet received any official confirmation from the Arbitral Tribunal about the date of verdict in the Bay of Bengal Maritime Boundary Arbitration between Bangladesh and India.
The verdict in the maritime boundary dispute was due to have been announced last month.
According to the rules of procedure of the Hague-based UN Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), "the tribunal shall endeavour to render its Award within six months of the close of the proceedings."
The tribunal concluded its hearing on December 18, 2013 at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
Sources at the maritime affairs unit of the foreign ministry said the ministry and the Bangladesh embassy in the Netherlands were in close touch with the PCA.
But they had not received any information on the verdict from The Hague until yesterday.
"There has been no official confirmation regarding the verdict that was expected to be delivered tomorrow [Wednesday]," said a senior official of the maritime affairs unit yesterday.
Vice Admiral M Farid Habib, chief of the Bangladesh Navy, on June 23 disclosed at a function in Chittagong that the verdict on the maritime boundary dispute with India would be given on July 2.
Contacted, Bangladesh Ambassador in the Netherlands Sheikh Mohammed Belal told The Daily Star that the verdict would not be delivered on July 2. But he did not elaborate on the matter.
This time, Dhaka is expecting a positive result, similar to the settlement with Myanmar in the maritime boundary delimitation case in 2012.
The verdict delivered by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on March 14, 2012 sustained Bangladesh's claim to 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone and territorial rights in the Bay of Bengal against Myanmar's claim.
Dhaka lodged the case against Delhi with the PCA on October 8, 2009 after India unfairly cut off a significant portion of Bangladesh's maritime area in the Bay.
Over the course of the hearings, Bangladesh and India presented their positions on certain key issues relating to the maritime boundary between the two states, including the location of the land boundary terminus between them, the delimitation of the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone, and the continental shelf within and beyond 200 nautical miles.
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