Revoke the UK's extradition treaty with India with immediate effect
The Parliament petitions site records 12,771 signatures for this petition, which closed on 10 March 2022. The Government responded on 28 October 2021.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Revoke the UK's extradition treaty with India with immediate effect
We are alarmed by the number of extradition requests to India that have been approved by the UK Home Office. We believe that human lives are in effect being sacrificed for trade deals.
It has been reported that the Foreign Secretary has said that restricting trade because of human rights abuses would mean missing out on “growth markets”.
As trade and political relations with the Indian state deepen, we urge the UK Government to confirm its obligation to its citizens and the ECHR Articles, upholding and prioritising human rights over trade deals, by revoking the extradition treaty with India.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 28 October 2021; the petitions site lists the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office as responsible. Its summary:
Our extradition framework is unrelated to trade arrangements and protects people from extradition to any country if it would breach their human rights. We do not intend to revoke the UK-India treaty.
The opening 360 words of the 783-word response:
The UK Central Authority deals with extradition requests from all non-EU countries. Designated UK extradition partners fall under three headings: parties to the European Convention on Extradition; parties to the London Scheme for Extradition within the Commonwealth; and bilateral treaty partners. Under UK law, before UK courts, every individual wanted for extradition by another country, including India, is considered according to the same criteria regardless of nationality and provided with the same statutory safeguards and judicial oversight to protect their rights.
The Extradition Act 2003 governs all extradition cases before UK Courts and requires a UK Judge to decide whether the requested person's extradition would be compatible with their human rights. These are defined as Convention rights within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998. The court must order the requested person’s discharge from their extradition proceedings if extradition would not be compatible with their Convention rights.
This statutory bar to extradition on human rights grounds, imposed by the Extradition Act 2003, is one that UK courts are obliged to consider in every case. A requested person will not be extradited if doing so would breach their human rights, if the request is politically motivated or if they would be at risk of facing the death penalty. The court can also bar a person’s extradition if, according to a range of factors including their health, it would not be in the interests of justice for the extradition to take place and can decide that it would be more appropriate to try the case in the UK than in the requesting state.
The safeguards and protections set out in the Extradition Act 2003 are available in all UK courts to all persons requested for extradition to any overseas jurisdiction, so every country in the world. The Extradition Act sets these safeguards out in full and they operate regardless of the terms of any international legal framework that is in place. They are therefore applicable to all bilateral treaties between the UK and other countries, such as between the UK and India, and any other forms of multilateral international cooperation for example the Commonwealth Scheme and the European Convention on Extradition.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions.json?state=with_response&page=31UK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
73140e8369ba5c5e… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
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