This case arose out of an incident in 2012 in which two fishers, Valantine Jelestine and Ajeesh Pink, fishing off the coast of Kerala on the Indian-registered boat St Antony, were fired on from a passing Italian ship, the MV Enrica Lexie, and killed. The two Italian marines identified as the shooters were indicted for murder and other offences. The petitioners filed Writ Petition No 135 of 2012 under art 32 of the Constitution of India before this Court seeking directions to the Union of India to take all steps to secure the interests of the two marines: see Republic of Italy v Union of India (CMI1477) and Republic of Italy v Union of India (CMI187). The Republic of Italy made an ex gratia payment of compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased persons in April 2012. This Court also passed an order in May 2012 allowing the vessel to sail away, subject to certain terms and conditions, along with all 24 crew members.

The petitioners argued that India and Italy, having signed and ratified the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), had agreed to settle the dispute concerning the incident in question in terms of the binding dispute resolution mechanism provided under Annex VII of UNCLOS. In consequence of the Provisional Measures Order dated 24 August 2015 passed by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) (see CMI470) requiring both Italy and India to suspend all court proceedings, this Court stayed all pending matters. The Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the UNCLOS delivered its award on 21 May 2020 (see CMI967), which recorded the Republic of Italy's commitment to resume its criminal investigation into the incident, and that both India and Italy will co-operate with each other in pursuit of that investigation. Under the award, the Republic of Italy agreed to the amount of INR 100 million to be paid by Italy as total compensation under all the four heads of compensable loss identified by the Arbitral Tribunal's award, excluding the amount of INR 21.7 million already paid by Italy to the families of the victims.

The Union of India filed for an appropriate direction to dispose of the proceedings in conformity with the arbitral award and to quash the criminal proceedings in exercise of the powers under art 142 of the Constitution of India.

Held: All Indian criminal proceedings emanating from the incident are hereby quashed. The bail bonds provided by Chief Master Sergeant Massimiliano Latorre and Sergeant Major Salvatore Girone and their sureties are hereby discharged. All pending matters before this Court are disposed of with no order as to costs. The Republic of Italy shall resume its criminal investigation and the Union of India, the Republic of Italy, and the State of Kerala shall co-operate with each other in pursuit of that investigation. The amount paid into the Registry of this Court shall be transferred to the High Court of Kerala for disbursement/investment of the amount to be paid to the heirs of each deceased so as to protect the interest of the heirs and ensure that the compensation is duly received by the heirs and not diverted/misappropriated. The remaining amount is to be paid to the owner of the fishing boat, the St Antony.