Case concerning right of passage over Indian territory (preliminary objections) Judgment of 26 November 1957

The case concerning right of passage over Indian territory (Preliminary Objections) between Portugal and India was submitted by Application of the Portuguese Government requesting the Court to recognize and declare that Portugal was the holder or beneficiary of a right of passage between its territory of Damâo (littoral Damâo) and its enclaves of Dadra and Nagar-Aveli and between each of the latter and that this right comprises the faculty of transit for persons and goods, including armed forces, without restrictions or difficulties and in the manner and to the extent required by the effective exercise of Portuguese sovereignty in the said territories, that India has prevented and continues to prevent the exercise of the right in question, thus committing an offence to the detriment of Portuguese Sovereignty over the enclaves and violating its international obligations and to adjudge that India should put an immediate end to this situation by allowing Portugal to exercise the right of passage thus claimed. The Application expressly referred to Article 36, paragraph 2, of the Statute and to the Declarations by which Portugal and India have accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court.

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