<span style="color: #222222;">The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting an election. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The five-judge Constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, said that citizens have a right to be informed about the antecedents of their candidates and political parties are obligated to put all the information about their candidates on their websites. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Chief Justice, while reading out the unanimous verdict on PIL seeking to disqualify candidates contesting polls after court frames charges against them, said Parliament must ensure that criminals must not come to politics. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The bench, also comprising Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, asked the legislature to consider framing a law to ensure decriminalisation of politics. </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Apex court said that informed choice is the corner stone of democracy and termed criminalisation of politics of the largest democracy as "unsettling". </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The court favoured wider publicity, through print and electronic media about the antecedents of candidates affiliated to political parties.</span><br />