CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday refused to interfere in the functioning of the Punjab State Election Commission (SEC) in the ongoing probe into an alleged audio leak related to the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections. The court directed that the SEC’s role must remain impartial and also be visibly transparent throughout the electoral process.
According to the court’s order, the audio clip at the centre of the controversy will now be examined in a state forensic lab in Punjab instead of the Central Forensic Laboratory in Chandigarh.
The bench delivered the written judgment, asked the SEC to ensure that all police personnel and SHOs deployed on election duty work in a strictly impartial manner.
The court also declined to interfere in the forensic examination process while hearing petitions filed by senior SAD leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa and Mehakdeep Singh Sidhu. The petitioners had sought that the audio clip allegedly involving Patiala police officers be sent to the CFSL in Chandigarh for testing.
