Table of Contents
Union of India v. ADR (2002)
Supreme Court of India · 2002-05-02 · (2002) 5 SCC 294 · ★ Landmark
Voters have a fundamental right to know candidates' educational and criminal background.
Case details
| Court | Supreme Court of India |
|---|---|
| Decided | 2002-05-02 |
| Citation | (2002) 5 SCC 294 |
| Bench | M.B. Shah, P. Venkatarama Reddi, D.M. Dharmadhikari |
| Petitioner | Union of India |
| Respondent | Association for Democratic Reforms |
| RTI Act sections | — |
| Outcome | Rejected |
Outcome
Voters' right to know criminal antecedents of candidates flows from Article 19(1)(a).
Ratio decidendi
Right of voters to know the antecedents of candidates (criminal, educational, financial) is a facet of the right to free expression under Article 19(1)(a).
Keywords
voter rights, Article 19(1)(a), candidates, ADR
Later rulings that cite this case
- ADR v. Union of India (Electoral Bonds) (SC 2024)
Similar cases in the corpus
These rulings have the closest editorial ratio to this case — computed by tf-idf cosine similarity over ratio, keywords and Act sections. Useful starting points if you are researching the same point of law.
- State of U.P. v. Raj Narain (SC 1975)
- ADR v. Union of India (Electoral Bonds) (SC 2024)
- K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (SC 2017)
Related
Editorial summary, not a certified report. The ratio here is an editorial compression. Before citing this ruling in a PIO order, FAA speaking order, or any appellate filing, verify against the full reported decision. RTI Wiki is not a legal service.
Editorial summary · last reviewed 21 April 2026.
Discussion