Press Statements
Judicial Delays in Rape Cases
01 Mar, 2013Colonial era sedition law contained in section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code makes creating hatred or contempt for or disaffection towards the government established by Law in India, an act of sedition punishable with imprisonment for life, whether such disaffection, hatred or contempt is created by words spoken or written or by ...
PUCL Statement on the Hanging of Afzal Guru
09 Feb, 2013The PUCL condemns the hanging of Afzal Guru in Tihar Jail early in the morning (9.2.2013) today. The tearing hurry, with which Afzal Guru was hanged, accompanied by the flouting of all established norms by not giving his family their legal right to meet him before taking him to the gallows, clearly indicates that there were politi...
RTI activist who took on cops injected with poison: Condition critical
01 Feb, 2013PUCL-Andhra Pradesh urged the immediate intervention of the National Human Rights Commission, Supreme Court, AP State Human Rights Commission, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and state Chief Minister Mr N Kiran Kumar Reddy in the incident of an RTI activist, Mr. Srinivasa Rao, who took on cops and was injected with poison and hi...
Immediately stop the brutal police assault on peaceful protesters opposing POSCO project in Odisha
01 Feb, 2013Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti about brutal police assault on villagers who were peacefully protesting against forcible acquisition of their lands. The 12 platoon strong mobilisation that culminated in the assault started around midnight and the p...
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay Applauds Indian Movement to Eradicate ‘Manual Scavenging’
31 Jan, 2013GENEVA (31 January 2013) – The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today welcomed the strong movement that has been developing over the past few months in India to eradicate the practice known as ‘manual scavenging’ which, because of the stigma attached to it, has traditionally been carried out by Dalit wom...
Joint Statement: Issued on behalf of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Citizens for Democracy (CFD)
30 Jan, 2013Police Action against Ashis Nandy Condemned We deprecate strongly the police action being taken against Ashis Nandy. The accusation that Nandy has made derogatory casteist remarks against dalits and OBCs are utterly baseless. Ashis Nandy has been longstanding friend and guide of the OBC and dalit cause and his record for such depr...
Tell the Nation the Truth on the KKNPP
28 Jan, 2013Angered by moral and political corruption, disturbing developments and the overall mismanagement of the body politic, Marcellus tells Horatio in utter disgust and disappointment in Shakespeare’s classic play Hamlet: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” We, the people of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, who have been fighting...
Civil Society Groups’ statement Against Conferment of Honours on Perpetrators of Sexual Violence against Women
25 Jan, 2013We, the undersigned, are appalled at the conferment of the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service to SRP Kalluri, IGP of Chhattisgarh. Mr. Kalluri raped a tribal woman, Ledha Bai, when he was the SP of Sarguja District, ordered her gang-rape by his juniors, and then terrorized her and her lawyer when she decided to fil...
PUCL Statement on Latehar Incidents, Jharkhand
12 Jan, 2013The PUCL condemns the recent incident of mutilation and placing of IEDs inside the bodies of CRPF personnel killed in an encounter with the Maoist forces in the forests of Latehar in Jharkhand. Placing IEDs inside the abdomen or stomach of dead men seriously endangers lives of uninvolved others like doctors and medical personnel w...
Free Aparna Marandi: Rights Violation by Jharkhand Police
01 Jan, 2013Aparna Marandi, her four-year-old son Alok Chandra, Satish (16 years old) her distant relative and her two friends Baby Turi and Susheela Ekka were picked up the police on 8th December. The manner in which they were picked up, interrogated and detained, are in clear violation of all established procedures and rules. Aparna was for...