Indian residents sit next to a placard with the picture of Kulbhushan Jadhav in the neighbourhood where he grew up in Mumbai on Wednesday. Indranil Mukherjee / AFP

Review the death penalty given in 2017 to former Indian navy commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, who was convicted of being a spy, the World Court ordered Pakistan on Wednesday.

A document published on the court's website, which appeared before the judges started reading out a summary of the judgment, stated that Pakistan has to provide an "effective review" of the case and added that a "continued stay of execution" of Jadhav was needed for that to happen.

India had asked the UN court, formally known as the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to intervene in the case, as it said Jadhav had been given an unfair trial and had been denied diplomatic assistance by Pakistan.

The court found by 15 votes to 1 that Pakistan had breached Jadhav's rights under the Vienna convention on consular relations by not allowing Indian diplomats to visit him in jail, according to the document.

The ICJ has no means to enforce its rulings which are final and without appeal. It is unclear from the ruling what exactly would constitute an effective review of Jadhav's sentence.

Reuters