Chandigarh, Dec. 9 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday asked the state election commission to expedite the inquiry into the 'audio clip' released by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal last week, of Patiala SSP Varun Sharma purportedly directing his subordinates to obstruct opposition candidates from filing their nomination papers for the December 14 zila parishad and block samiti elections. Taking up the public interest litigations by Punjab leader of opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa of the Congress and SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema, the court gave the commission time till Wednesday and deferred the hearing. "Pull up your socks and hasten the inquiry," the bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry said while deferring the hearing for Wednesday. Bajwa has sought the extension of the last date for filing of nomination papers for elections, which ended on December 4, amid allegations of sabotage. He also demanded action on the controversy surrounding the audio clip. The SAD accused the AAP government of misusing the police machinery to subvert the electoral process and sought an independent probe into the controversy. As the hearing began, the state's counsel emphasised that the petitions by these leaders are not maintainable and the first question of maintainability should be decided. He termed the PILs "political interest litigations" and said that across the state, only 10% of the nominations have been rejected out of the 12,000 filed by different candidates. With regard to the controversy surrounding the audio clip, the SEC's counsel said that an ADGP-level officer is inquiring into it and that the probe was initiated on December 4 as soon as the incident came to light. To further supplement his arguments, the government counsel submitted that the original device and the video had not been provided by the SAD leader, Sukhbir Singh Badal. "Unless we get the original device and the audio, the investigation can't progress," the state's counsel submitted. Appearing for the SAD leader Cheema, senior advocate, Ashok Agarwal sought transfer of the SSP and submitted that in his presence, how the impartial elections can take place. He also alleged that in several districts, such as Patiala, Tarn Taran, etc., large-scale sabotage has taken place, and either nomination papers were torn while the candidates were on their way or were rejected. Appearing for Bajwa, senior advocate APS Deol also reiterated the allegations and submitted that a block-wise data has been compiled and the same would be supplied to the court, demonstrating how mass-scale rejection of nomination papers has taken place and gave examples of Majitha, Raja Sansi and Tarn Taran, etc. The court deferred the hearing for Wednesday and said that the probe into the audio-clip controversy should be expedited. The court said that clips from social networking sites should be examined if the SAD leaders were not supplying the 'original' version. The court has also issued a notice in a similar PIL which demands that candidates be allowed to file the nomination process online in future to avoid recurrence of allegations faced this year. The elections for zila parishads and block samitis are scheduled for December 14, while counting will be held on December 17. The last date for filing nominations was December 4, which saw complaints of snatching of nomination papers....