The Tribunal has directed the Army to deduct the amount of Rs 20,000 from the pension of Jaswal, who retired on December 31. Jaswal was "strongly condemned" by the two-judge bench headed by A K Mathur for setting aside an order of Allahabad High Court in the divorce case of a Lt Colonel as he used "administrative powers" to raise the alimony amount.
In 2009, the High Court had fixed Rs 3,000 per month as the alimony for the Lt Colonel's wife reducing it from Rs 8,000 which was fixed by a Meerut court. After the High Court order, the Lt Colonel's wife filed an application before the Army Wives' Welfare Association (AWWA), which referred the matter to the Northern Command, headed by Jaswal then.
Jaswal decided to revise the maintenance amount to Rs 25,000 under his administrative power, according to the AFT's order. Taking a serious view of this, the AFT said, "We strongly condemn such action in no uncertain terms as the army authorities have no business to interfere with the order of the High Court."
The Tribunal further observed, "Once a civil court has passed the oder then no army authority can sit over the matter. Order passed by the civil court always has precedence and there is no option with army authorities to sit over that order of civil court."
Awarding the compensation to the Lt Colonel who petitioned it, the Tribunal said, "Responsibility may be fixed on the persons who have passed such impertinent order and the amount (of Rs 20,000) may be deducted from their salary." The order for raising the alimony was passed by Jaswal.
Jaswal hit the headlines last year when he was denied a proper visa by China when he was intending to attend a meeting as part of high level defence exchanges in July. China gave him visa on stapled paper as he commanded a unit which was serving in Jammu and Kashmir.
India had taken a serious view of this and suspended the high level defence exchanges with China.