[1] The IPT is an unofficial body led by retired judges who form a panel that conducts public enquiries into human rights and environmental abuses.

[2] Since being founded the IPT has conducted numerous investigations into cases of relocation of rural people to make way for dams or parks, eviction of slum dwellers, industrial pollution and communal or state-sponsored violence.

[4] The IPT was to be a permanent body that would fight the inertia and bureaucracy of the government and the legal system through public-interest litigation and public awareness campaigns.

[2] The IPT acts as a "people's court", an alternative to the formal justice system, conducting investigations on many types of issue and recommending remedial actions.

In a typical enquiry a team will visit the site and meet with affected people, then conduct a public hearing where all involved parties are asked to give information.

"[8][9] In March 1999 the IPT investigated the condition of tribal people who had accepted an offer by the government to relocate eight years ago when a dam had submerged their land in the Narmada River Valley.

The people had been promised equal amounts of land at the new site, payment to cover the cost of the move, building materials and infrastructure such as water supplies, schools and so on.

[11] In June 2010 the IPT released a report documenting results of an investigation of large-scale dam projects like Sardar Sarovar, Indira Sagar, Omkareshwar and Jobat.

[13] In August 1995 Justice Hosbet Suresh, a retired judge of the Bombay high court, issued a report titled Forced Evictions – An Indian People's Tribunal Enquiry into the Brutal Demolitions of Pavement and Slum Dwellers' Homes.

[17] In April 1998 the IPT issued a report on Enron in India, documenting police action and criminal proceedings against opponents of the Dabhol Power Station.

[19] Among other findings, a 2001 enquiry into the Bandra Worli Sea Link Project noted that motorways and flyovers benefit the 9% of families who owned cars.

[20] The SIPCOT chemical industry estate in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, was investigated in November 2002 by an IPT team headed by J. Kanakaraj, a retired Madras high court justice.

It found that "Villages like Kudikadu, Thaikal, Eachangadu and Sonnanchavadi lie in a virtual 'gas chamber' surrounded on three sides by chemical factories and bounded on the fourth by the river".

[citation needed] In a letter to the National Human Rights Commission of India, Chatterji said threats were faxed from the state office of the Vishva Hindu Parishad.

It describes massive mobilisation of the Sangh Parivar, a Hindutva group, against Muslims and Christians, often justifying their actions on the basis of fabricated threats from the minorities.

[citation needed] The report said "in Kashmir, arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and custodial deaths, rape and midnight raids into homes and disappearances have become routine".