PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 729
Parliament is appointed to any committee where the allowances may be more than mere remuneration and the appointment may be regarded as an office of profit, then in the case of each appointment the Act of Parliament shall say that “this shall not be regarded as an office of profit”. That may be done in a general way.
Shri Sidhva: What about the committees in which Members are now drawing more than Rs. 20 ? There are certain committees.
Dr. Ambedkar: I have no idea.
Shri Sidhva: That is the point to be clarified.
Dr. Ambedkar : If you bring such cases to our notices we will examine them. So far as our Department is concerned we had collected all the information from all the Ministers. We examined them and found that these are the cases where the allowance exceeded the standard that we had fixed and therefore an indemnity was necessary. In other cases we found that the allowances did not offend against the basic rule and consequently no such indemnity was necessary.
Shri Sidhva: What is your information ?
Dr. Ambedkar: You must accept our information. Let the Member who is affected make a representation that “I am drawing more but I am not exempted”.
Shri Sidhva: Why not do it here ?
Dr. Ambedkar : I cannot off-hand accept your suggestion. You may accept that your facts are not correct as mine may be. Yours are the labours of a single individual. Here hundreds have examined and surely their information may be taken to be more reliable.
My friend Mr. Kamath asked me something about the Assam Government Pleader. Well, I do not know but I should like to say this. Whether a Government Pleader in a Province is the holder of an office of profit or not is a matter which has been decided long long ago. So far as I remember when the Government of India Act came into operation in the Province in 1937, a ruling was given, I believe in some of the