Chandigarh, Jan. 16 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday rapped the state election commission (SEC), Punjab, over the delay in completion of the investigation into an audio clip allegedly involving the Patiala senior superintendent of police (SSP) giving directions to cops during the zila parishad elections in December 2025 to prevent opposition candidates from filing their nomination papers.

The division bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry questioned the SEC as to why the special investigation team (SIT) had failed to submit its report more than a month after the court's earlier order on December 10 and has directed the commission to submit the report within three weeks.

The court was hearing a PIL fi...