State of U.P. v. Raj Narain case
Also called: State of Uttar Pradesh v. Raj Narain · Topic: Transparency, Accountability and e-Governance · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
This is a 1975 Supreme Court judgment. It held that the people have a right to know every public act done by public officials. The Court said this right flows from the freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a), because a person cannot speak or form views freely without information. The case made the "right to know" part of constitutional law, decades before the RTI Act 2005.
Example
Later judgments built on it. S.P. Gupta v. UoI (1981) said disclosure is the rule and secrecy is the exception. The RTI Act 2005 then turned this right into a working legal procedure.
Don't confuse with
- Indira Nehru Gandhi v. Raj Narain (1975): a separate case from the same year about the Prime Minister's election. It was not about the right to know.