Git push tries to delete branch twice and fails

I have a git 2.49.0 (Windows) and one local working tree is kind of broken, when I try:

$ git push origin branch1
Total 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0 (from 0)
To file:///c:/...
 * [new branch]            branch1 -> branch1
Everything up-to-date

$ git push origin :branch1
To file:///c:/...
 - [deleted]               branch1
error: unable to delete 'branch1': remote ref does not exist
error: failed to push some refs to 'file:///c:/...'

So, the same `git push` command first deletes the branch and then fails because it does not exist. It worked well until something happened and since that time it's broken. I've tried `git gc --aggressive --prune`, but it didn't help.

When I do `git clone` of the same repository to another local working tree, then it's OK - the branch is deleted without the error.

Is this a Git bug? Is it possible to fix the local working tree except for a new git clone?

Note: I am developing an app which uses (creates and deletes) custom
refs often. So, I've hit this bug when trying to delete a custom ref.
I have cleared all custom refs and tried that with Git branches.

Cheers Andy