PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 723
intended to cover the loss which professional or businessmen incurred by giving up their business in this country and going to London to attend the Conference.
Shri Sidhva: How much was that?
Dr. Ambedkar : I forget the amount now—I think it was £ 100 a month. It is a long story, but I remember the distinction very well. But this distinction to my mind, is a very clear distinction. It is a distinction which can be justified on facts and which has a lot of precedents behind it. Therefore, the conclusion that was reached by Government in assessing whether any particular office was an office of profit or not was this distinction—whether the allowance or payment made to the member was nothing more than the bare expense which he may be supposed in normal times to incur, or whether in addition to this he was paid something more. We have taken the basis for actual expenses what has been decided by the Finance Minstry—in fact. I should have said what has been accepted by Government—not merely decided by the Finance Ministry, but accepted by Government before this conclusion was reached.
As I said, the matter was brought before Government through the Speaker and through the President. There were only one or two cases that were referred to Government for consideration, but Government felt that it was desirable to find out whether there were any more cases of this sort to which the attention of the Speaker was not drawn and we, therefore, circularised the various Ministries. We circularised various offices to let us know whether there were any such cases which required to be considered, so that one comprehensive measure may be brought into cover all such cases that had happened since the inauguration of the Constitution. After the cases were received we applied this test to which I have just now referred—what was the amount of compensation that was paid : was it only the bare expenses, or was it something more than that. If it was something more than that, then we decided that it should be deemed to be an office of profit. If it was just what was decided upon by the Finance Ministry, we treated that it was not an office