New Delhi: India has categorically rejected the May 15 ruling of the The Hague based Permanent Court of Arbitration (CoA) prescribing 'maximum pondage' levels- amount of water India can store in its hydel projects off the Indus river system and reiterated that India does not recognise the 'illegally constituted CoA' and that the Indus Water Treaty remains in abeyance."The illegally constituted so-called Court of Arbitration (CoA) has, on 15 May 2026, issued what it termed an award concerning maximum pondage supplemental to the award on issues of general interpretation of the Indus Waters Treaty. India categorically rejects the present so-called award, just as it has firmly rejected all prior pronouncements of the illegally constituted CoA. India has never recognised the establishment of this so-called CoA. Any proceeding, award, or decision issued by it is null and void. India's decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance remains in force", the Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi on Saturday.While the May 15 Award details are not yet public, it is expected to follow from the PCA's August 8, 2025 Award on Issues of General Interpretation of the Indus Water Treaty which favoured maximum pondage calculations based on water collected over a seven-day period at minimum discharge levels- essentially restricting the volumes of water India can hold on hourly basis at Kishenganga and Ratle projects besides also impacting India's outlet design structure to clear/flush reservoir sediment.India, on the other hand, has explicitly and repeatedly rejected CoA proceedings since 2023 and termed them 'illegal', as they were piloted by Pakistan even as concurrent proceedings were underway at the Neutral Expert level- which India did participate in until the April 2025 Pahalgam attack.However, the CoA in June 2025- moved by Pakistan- declared itself competent to address the dispute and held the IWT did not allow for 'unilateral' suspension of the Treaty even as India boycotted its proceedings.It, in fact, fast tracked its proceedings over last few months and also permitted access to confidential Indian documents submitted to the Neutral Expert on Ratle project construction schedule and design besides documents related to suspension of Neutral expert work programme-essentially linking the two overlapping proceedings.PCA's Procedural Order 20 of March 12- further granted Pakistan permission to submit 'Pondage logbooks'- including India's 31.07.2024 technical data on Kishanganga Hydel project, the more recent 21.01.2025 data linked to the Ratle hydel project besides the 2015 Bathymetric survey data of Baglihar reservoir.