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Highlighting non-disclosure of key details in the plea, the Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation raising concerns over Laxmi Singh being the Inspector General of Police (IG), Lucknow Range. Singh's husband Rajeshwar Singh is Bhartiya Janta Party(BJP) candidate from Sarojini Nagar constituency in the State Assembly elections.

Apprehending that Singh would influence the elections and their results, Saurabh Kumar Shukla, a media person, had knocked high court's door allegedly in the public interest. He had also placed several letters written by a political party to the Election Commission of India (ECI) raising the same issue. 

However, the bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Jaspreet Singh held that "number of letters written by a political party to the Election Commission of India have been placed on record in support of the argument, however, the source thereof has not been disclosed, which apparently would mean that it is a proxy litigation."

Court added that "the fact remains that the political party, which had raised the issue before the Election Commission of India, could have very well raised it before other forums, in case, it found that there was violation of any instructions issued by the Election Commission of India. Nothing has been pointed out in this regard."

Further, Shukla had argued that as per the instructions of the ECI, to ensure free and fair election, if spouse of any candidate is employed in the constituency, he/she should be transferred.

However, the court found that there was no pleading in the writ petition to show as to how the instructions issued by the Election Commission of India were being violated. Therefore, taking note of the absent details, court refused to entertain the PIL. 

It is to be noted that as per media reports, Samajwadi Party had recently written to the ECI seeking Singh's immediate transfer out of the State capital on grounds that she was influencing voters in her husband's support. 

Case Title: Saurabh Kumar Shukla v. Election Commission of India, New Delhi and others