New Delhi, Aug. 31 -- India on Monday delivered a robust and unyielding dismissal of a ruling delivered by a World Bank-constituted Court of Arbitration concerning the Indus Waters Treaty, branding the panel an "illegally constituted" body and making it unequivocally clear that New Delhi's decision to keep the water pact in abeyance "will remain in force."

Issuing a sharp diplomatic rebuke, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) denounced the tribunal's legitimacy and reaffirmed India's absolute sovereignty over its national security and infrastructure decisions in the face of persistent provocations from Islamabad.

"This so-called Court was constituted by the World Bank in patent breach of the terms of the Treaty and India categoricall...