Stem rust and leaf rust are important diseases affecting durum wheat production in India. Inheritance and extent of diversity in resistance were studied in five durum genotypes, viz. ʽB 662', ʽED 2398-A', ʽHG 110', ʽIWP 5019' and ʽLine 1172ʼ using Pgt pathotypes 40A and 117-6, and Pt pathotypes 12-2 and 104-2. F 2 and F 3 analyses showed that resistance was conferred by one or two genes in each line. In all, four genes for resistance to 40A, and eight each for pathotypes 117-6 and 12-2 were identified among the five genotypes, and three for resistance to 104-2 among B 662, ED 2398-A and IWP 5019 were indicated by tests of allelism. Although the gene identities are not known, at least some of them should be different from Sr2, Sr7b, Sr8a, Sr8b, Sr9e, Sr9g, Sr11, Sr12, Sr13, Sr14, Sr17, Sr23 and Sr28; and from Lr3, Lr14a, Lr23 and Lr27 + Lr31. These genotypes enrich the diversity of resistance to stem rust and leaf rust for durum wheat improvement.Key words: genetic diversity -Lr genes -resistance durability -Sr genes -Triticum turgidum ssp. durum India produces more than 90 million tonnes of wheat from an area of more than 25 million hectares, to which the contribution of durum wheat is about 5%. However, durum wheat has a special niche in the Indian wheat economy for at least two reasons: firstly, Indian durum is typically purchased by private traders at a premium price, mainly for processing high-value products; secondly, durum is preferred over bread wheat for several local food preparations. Durum and cultivated emmer are mainly grown in the central and southern parts, where leaf rust and stem rust are the major disease problems affecting wheat. Broadening the resistance base through the utilization of genetically diverse resistance sources is necessary to enhance the durability of resistance to meet ongoing threats from the continuously evolving rust pathogens. Relatively, little work has been done on the inheritance of rust resistance in durum, compared to bread wheat. However, studies conducted in different parts of the world indicate that durum generally shows resistance to Puccinia triticina (Pt) pathotypes virulent to bread wheat and vice versa