The civil rights movement in India has emerged as an autonomous voice in defense of civil liberties and democratic rights of our people. The Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi, is one such organisation. It came into existence in 1977 as the Delhi unit of a larger national forum, PUCLDR, and became PUDR on 1 February, 1981.
Sections
Latest Publications
Voices of Protest: Workers’ Struggle at Wazirpur
The Supreme Court gave an amended order in 1996 for the relocation and closure of polluting factories in Delhi. For workers, the order had a provision of compensation in case of loss of jobs due to relocation or closure. In this state of affairs where more than half...
D.K. Basu Vs State of West Bengal
The judgment on PIL on the issue of death in police custody and "custody jurisprudence" and modalities for awarding compensation to the victim and/or family members of the victim for atrocities and death caused in police custody and also the question of...
The Other Side of the Success Story: Work Conditions, Accidents and Workers’ Rights at Hindalco
On 10 April 1996, a sizable portion of the wall of a fly ash disposal pond belonging to Hindalco Industries Ltd. collapsed at Renukoot town. Approximately 22,500 tonnes of the ash and water sludge swept the valley area up to the Rihand river covering a distance of...
A Tale of Two Cities: Custodial Death and Police Firing in Ashok Vihar
The report starts with the death of the 19-year-old Jhuggi Dweller, Dilip who had reportedly gone to relieve himself in a nearby park in Ashok Vihar and was harassed to death by policemen present in the park. Four other jhuggi residents died and 16 were injured in the...
Behind High Walls: Custodial Death in Tihar Jail
On July 15, 1996, a newspaper reported the death of an undertrial, Yasin Ahmed, under "mysterious circumstance". He had been in jail for slightly under three months. PUDR team conducted a fact-finding investigation and met jail officials, Yasin's family members and...
Latest Press Statements
How democracy ‘uses’ a colonial law
PUDR has continually critiqued the existence of the colonial law of sedition and its unconstitutional application at the behest of those who hold state power, in cases that do not stand the test of law. The arrest of SAR Geelani, Professor at the University of Delhi,...
Condemning the vigilante action at the Patiala House Courts, New Delhi
PUDR strongly condemns the shocking acts of physical violence and abuse perpetrated by 40 advocates and BJP MLA OP Sharma against students and faculty of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and media persons today, at the Patiala House court, in full presence of the...
Condemn Fascism in the Name of Nationalism
PUDR strongly condemns the Delhi Police for arresting the JNU students’ union president, Kanhaiya Kumar today, 12th February, on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy for holding a protest demonstration on February 9th against the judicial hanging of Afzal Guru,...
PUDR salutes Professor Randhir Singh
Peoples Union for Democratic Rights mourns the death of Professor Randhir Singh, who passed away on Sunday 31st January, 2016. He was teacher par excellence to many, guide and philosopher to many more. For us he spanned the pre and post 1947 India which was marked not...
The police must be held answerable for the Sangam Park riot of 31st January
PUDR strongly condemns the police’s role in the outbreak of riots between members of the Valmiki and Muslim communities, in the Sangam Park area in North West Delhi, on 31st January, 2016. PUDR’s investigation into the incidents of 30th and 31st January, and...