In an embarrassment to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung on Thursday returned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government’s recommendation of removing Barkha Singh as the Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW). According to reports, the lt-Governor has asked the State Government to explain the grounds on which it is seeking the reconstitution of DCW. The Chief Minister had earlier sent a recommendation to Jung to appoint eminent social worker Maitreyi Pushpa as DCW Chairperson in place of Barkha Singh.

The face-off between the Aam Aadmi Party Government and Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) intensified over latter’s action against law Minister Somnath Bharti, who has faced criticism for conducting a midnight raid on the house of a Ugandan national and misbehaving with him. Since then, both sides have refused to budge from their respective stands.

The AAP Government had pressed for Barkha Singh’s removal to ensure ‘unbiased’ probe against Bharti, the DCW has demanded that a FIR be lodged against the law Minister for not heeding to repeated summons by the panel. “Barkha Singh is of the Congress, if she remains the chairperson of DCW then she will do politics; we want a probe by an unbiased person,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said. Hitting out at AAP Government, Barkha Singh said that she would meet lt-Governor Najeeb Jung to present the DCW’s view on the matter. “We are going to meet the l-G to place our view. I will present the facts to him. The law Minister should not be taking law into his own hands. Nobody has the right to ask me for my resignation,” she said.