[3] When Indira Gandhi was found guilty of violating electoral laws by the Allahabad High Court, Narayan called for her to resign, and advocated a program of social transformation.
[citation needed] Narayan originally intended PUCL to be an organisation free from political ideologies, bringing those concerned about defending civil liberties and human rights from different backgrounds onto a common platform.
[4] After the return of Indira Gandhi to power in the 1980 elections in India, the organisation regained momentum[3] and was renamed as the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
eminent advocate, working with the Human rights movement for the last four decades [5] Other notable office bearers include Dr. Binayak Sen, Sudha Bharadwaj, Advocate N D Pancholi, Senior Counsei Mihir Desai, Farman Naqvi, R Murali, Surendra Kumar, Rohit Prajapati, Ashok Bharti, Father David solomon, @Bhanwar Meghwanshi, Lara Jesani, Seema Azad, Y. Rajendra, S Balamurugan, Shahid Kamal, Arvind Avinash, Arvind Narrain, Kailash Meena, Mujahid Nafees, Sarfaraz, Sr. Sewti among others.
The PUCL has worked on the issue of the hundreds of people detained by India and Pakistan's governments and accused of espionage after trivial crimes like minor trespassing, a problem linked to the tension caused by the Kashmir conflict.
[8] Binayak Sen, who is the National Vice-President of the Union and General Secretary of its Chhattisgarh unit, was arrested in May 2007 by security agencies for his alleged links with Maoists.