While employing someone you have to be sure of his past history and that it contains nothing offensive or bad. It is possibly very dangerous to hire some one if they have a criminal record. You can access the public criminal court records for history of criminal offenses. These public court records are available for the public to access. Every court and every police station keeps records of people who have been held, convicted or are spending time in jail. The Right to Information Act makes sure that any person can have access to all such information.
You have to do a criminal history record check of any person coming in contact with you so that you can safeguard yourself, your family, property and money. However while it is perfectly legal to access the court records to safeguard yourself, it is wrong if you intend using it to defame someone or blackmail him.
You can track the public court records of a person through various websites on the Internet. Or you can access them through the public library or the courthouse. To get the details and a report you have to make an application and wait for the results. You can hire a private detective or agency to do the work for you. They will charge a fee for the information but you will save time and energy as these public records are so voluminous. Also you can gain immediate access to millions of public records online at any one of the websites who offer a public record database.