The National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Friday hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government, for issuing a “factually wrong” press release, saying that the SC Commission had withdrawn an arrest warrant for Jaspreet Talwar, Principal Secretary, School Education.
The SC panel had last week issued a warrant of arrest and production against the IAS officer, by exercising its powers at the Civil Court and sought that she be produced before NCSC Chairperson Vijay Sampla by January 17. The NCSC had said that Ms. Talwar had failed to appear before the Commission despite being served a summons over the appointments of junior and general category principals, while she was the education officer/principal in 2010.
On Thursday, the Punjab government’s Information and Public Relations Department issued a statement saying that the SC panel had “withdrawn” the arrest warrant and issued a fresh order seeking her appearance.
However, on Friday, NCSC Director (headquarters) Kaushal Kumar issued a statement, saying that the Punjab government’s press release “concealed that Jaspreet Talwar had requested the commission for withdrawal of arrest warrants and the same request was made by the chief secretary, the next day”.
He added that the release had wrongly stated that the NCSC had issued fresh orders asking Jaspreet Talwar to appear before the Commission.
He concluded that in view of the above facts, it was clear that the I&PR department Punjab, for reasons best known to them, had issued a factually wrong press release.