Union of India v. ADR (2002) — RTI Wiki Citizen Guide 2026
Quick Reply: Voters' right to know criminal antecedents of candidates flows from Article 19[1][a]. Voters have a fundamental right to know candidates' educational and criminal.
Supreme Court of India · 2002-05-02 · (2002) 5 SCC 294 · ★ Landmark
Voters' right to know criminal antecedents of candidates flows from Article 19[1][a]. Voters have a fundamental right to know candidates' educational and criminal.
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 |
Keep RTI Wiki Free for Every Citizen 🇮🇳
Hosting, servers, and content cost ₹50,000+ per month. Your support keeps this resource alive.
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.
Reader signal
Was this article useful?
Tap once if it helped you. These counters show other citizens which pages are worth reading.