Obituary: Jagdeep S. Chhokar (1944-2025)

Oct 01, 2025

By PUCL National

The PUCL condoles the passing away of Jadeep S. Chhokar, who was a professor of Management and Organisational Behaviour at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, from 1985 till November 2006, when he retired.  

Prof. Chhokar was one of the founding members of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). He and the ADR were behind some of the major electoral reforms in the last two decades, including disclosure of property and criminal antecedents of candidates. ADR is the principal petitioner against the SIR and the attempt to end universal adult franchise in India.   Prof Chhokar worked closely with PUCL especially in the area of electoral reforms and his wisdom will be deeply missed.

He will be missed by all those committed to democracy as democracy itself comes under increasing threat. As a  true tribute to him, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands through the SIR be stopped and the danger to our democracy is averted.