Harish Salve, the lawyer who charged Re 1 to save Kulbhushan Jadhav

New Delhi, July 17: For India it was a major victory, when the International Court of Justice suspended the death sentence awarded by a Pakistan military court to Kulbhushan Jadhav.

While, it is a major diplomatic victory for India, one must also know that the arguments for India were advanced by senior counsel, Harish Salve. For Salve and his team the first victory was the ICJ had stayed the sentence in 2017.

What is interesting is that Salve, who is one of India's top lawyers charged just Re 1 for the case.

Salve who is known to charge a high fee for the cases he argues only charged Re 1 for the case before the ICJ. "Not fair. Harish Salve has charged us Rs.1- as his fee for this case (sic)," External Affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj had said in a tweet.

The external affairs minister was responding to a twitter user who claimed that any good Indian lawyer would have done the same and with much less expenses than Harish Salve.

Sources say that it was Salve who voluntarily offered to charge just Rs 1 to argue India's case on behalf of Jadhav. It was in true national spirit and keeping in mind the sentiments of the entire nation that Salve decided to charge that fee to the government of India. He is a true patriot, the source also added.

Salve, it may be recalled had also successfully argued at the ICJ against a bid by Marshall Islands to sue India for violating the nuclear disarmament obligations.