272 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
The motion was adopted.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : There has to be one consequential amendment that in sub-clause (2) the word ‘ten’ shall be substituted for ‘seven’.
Mr. President (The Honourable Sir Abdur Rahim) : I think the Honourable Member would do well to put down a proper amendment. That, I think, can be done afterwards.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : At the end of subsection (2) in the last line, the word ‘ten’ shall be substituted for ‘seven’.
Mr. President (The Honourable Sir Abdur Rahim): I think there ought to be a formal amendment.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I regret I cannot accept this amendment. My Honourable friend, Mr. Inskip, stated that there was no definition of sickness. I wish we could define sickness ; I have searched for a definition in the Health Insurance Act, and I find that there is no definition of sickness for the simple reason that sickness cannot be defined. It is a matter of certification. If a medical person says that a certain person is sick, then everybody has got to accept that definition. If my Honourable friend’s contention was that certificate should be defined in a proper manner, I could have understood his complaint. But on that ground I submit he has no ground for complaint, because we propose to make rules in which persons who will have the authority to certify will be properly laid down : their qualifications will be prescribed. Consequently the fear that doctors who have no practice and who generally live on giving false certificates will find no place in this, because the rules, I hope, will be so framed that that sort of contingency will be altogether eliminated. The difficulty I find in accepting this amendment is this : my Honourable friend says that certificates should not suffice for sickness but that the employer should be allowed to sit in judgment, even when a certificate has been obtained, whether, notwithstanding the certificate, he would grant leave or he would not grant leave. I must say that that is a position to which Government cannot be a party. Government cannot allow an employer to say that notwithstanding the certificate given by a doctor whose
Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. IV, 2nd April 1945, p.2318.