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.
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Latest Publications
Continuing Impunity: Deaths in Police Custody in Delhi, 2016-2018
The brutal truth behind deaths in police custody were commonly the result of torture of suspects, which is part of routine policing practice in India. The repetitive, almost mundane nature of accounts of custodial deaths reflected in our reports, and their similarity...
simi-notifications
Comparative tabulation of Notifications related to banning SIMI from 2001 to 2019.
Work in Progress? Labour, Capital and Democratic Rights
This is PUDR's position paper presented during the 33rd Ramandham Memorial meeting on 8th Sep 2018. The paper is based on some of the investigations carried by PUDR over the years related to globally intergrated industries in the region - such as automobile industry...
Tuticorin Massacre: A Corporate Developmental Tourism
22nd May 2018 shook the conscience of all the citizens of India when the news of police firing on anti-Sterlite protestors in Tuticorin (Thoothukodi) in TamilNadu and killing 15 of them reached the citizens through different news channels and media reports. Such a...
A Criminal Act: Critique of the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Act, 2017
The Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Act, 2017 (UPCOCA) was passed on 27 March 2018. The statement of objects and reasons for the law argues that ‘organised crime’ has become a widespread and serious threat and such activities are fueled by illegal wealth,...
Latest Press Statements
When the Process becomes the Punishment
Tomorrow, 14th April 2022 marks the completion of two years of PUDR activist Gautam Navlakha’s surrender before the NIA. One of sixteen accused in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case, Gautam has been imprisoned in Taloja Central Jail, Navi Mumbai since 25 May 2020. For...
Punish Guilty Personnel Protected under AFSPA
People’s Union for Democratic Rights, PUDR, welcomes the Union Government’s decision (March 31, 2022), to significantly reduce the ambit of disturbed areas under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). According to news reports, this decision will be effective in...
Fahad Shah and the Tragic Fate of Journalism in Kashmir
The recent arrest of Fahad Shah, editor of Kashmir Walla, under S 13 of UAPA and S 124 A and 505 of IPC for ‘uploading anti-national content’ raises a debate about the fate of journalism in times of conflict. Shah was arrested as he had uploaded Inayat Ahmad Mir’s...
REVOKE UAPA AND OTHER CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST FACT-FINDING TEAM MEMBERS
The invocation of UAPA charges against members of a fact-finding team shortly after they released its findings on the communal violence in Tripura, is shocking and condemnable. Besides S. 13 of UAPA (punishment for ‘unlawful activity’), a slew of IPC offences has also...
Condemn the solitary confinement and continuing harassment of the Bhima Koregaon accused by Taloja Central Jail authorities! Stop punishing political prisoners for their beliefs!
The high handedness of the Taloja Central Jail administration was evident in the events leading to the death of the octogenarian Bhima Koregaon undertrail, Stan Swamy on July 5, 2021. Almost immediately, the remaining BK undertrials protested the arbitrary jail...