Court Orders / Judgements

1) Disclosure of Candidate Background (Criminal, Educational & Financial) to Election Commission. 

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by ADR in December 1999 culminated into a landmark Supreme Court Judgement on May 2, 2002 and an ordinance on Electoral Reforms promulgated in August 2002. The Ordinance was subsequently passed as a Bill in December 2002. It partially overturned the May 2, 2002 Supreme Court Judgement, requiring disclosure of criminal background, but not of financial and educational background. ADR and two other petitioners challenged this Act. The Supreme Court, in a second landmark Judgement on March 13, 2003, struck down the Bill as unconstitutional and restored its earlier order. Subsequently, the Election Commission issued orders implementing the following judgements:

2)  Allowing Public Access to Income Tax Returns of Political Parties

In April 2008, CIC on ADR's second appeal, allowed tax returns of political parties to be made public and directed the authorities to furnish copies of the IT returns of the parties to public. The appeal is listed below: