Private
Practice and Professionalism in our country
We have so many professionals’ degrees in our country being
awarded by Institutes or Universities. Some of the well known professions in
our country are Engineers, Technocrats, Doctors including Dentists and
Veterinarians, Lawyers, Professors, Teachers etc. are few to name, but I am
sure, the list will be long, if a realty check is done. All above class of
professionals gets employed in private as well as government sector. In the Govt
sectors, these professional are allowed to have different norms of practicing
their profession in public life. A norm generally known as private practice is legally
allowed for one class of professionals and is legally disallowed for other
class of professionals. Are we not professing discrimination between two class
of professionals in
A Doctor when employed in a Govt hospital practices his
profession from home also. Any one can see a board out side his residence
proudly displayed with consultation hours. He may be getting a Non Practicing Allowance
(NPA) also from his employers. But no one really bothers to see that whether
that is legally allowed or not. His superiors supposed to enforce that simply
turns Nelson eye because they themselves also may be doing the same in public
life.
As per VI pay commission, Doctors get NPA at the existing
rate of 25% of aggregate of Band pay
and Grade pay subject to the
condition that Basic pay + NPA does not exceed Rs 85000/-. The NPA is
restricted to those medical posts for which a medical qualification recognized
under the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 or under the Dentists Act, 1948 has
been prescribed as an essential qualification.
The order is same for Veterinary posts also. State Govt, Public sector Bodies
and Railways are also giving NPA to
their Doctors on more or less similar lines.
Govt. Advocates in our country profess private practice as well
as counseling in our country. I do not know whether Law officers are getting
any NPA or not, but they may be taking cases in court with certain conditions
like with prior government permission or may not be taking cases where
Govt or
a Govt body has a preponderating interest. They also display boards
outside their houses with counseling hours, so that public can approach them
accordingly. Thus when they offer consultancy service to their private clients
(other than Govt) in their profession with their wisdom, it is considered fair
and not labeled as corrupt practice in our country.
The teachers and professors are known to give tuitions at
home. No body ever thinks whether the activity is legal or not. They openly do
this activity in their homes. More enterprising ones open Tution centers near
to their homes for attracting maximum students. Some schools try to stop this
activity but with out much success. The parents
feel more secure if their ward starts going for tuitions. University
professors also carry out this activity with out any resistance from any
quarter. They all consider it fair on their part to display their wisdom
through coaching or tuitions with out ever thinking that such an activity is
covered in their service rules or not. All earn this as tax free income and no
one talks in terms of increasing corruption in our society.
Now take the case of Engineers and Technocrats in our
country. If they are employed in Govt /PSU sector. They are not allowed to do
private practice of their profession, they have learnt through years of hard
work with deep hole in their pocket. It
is common knowledge that to get a degree in Engineering or Technology, a
student has to go through some famous coaching institute for preparations, sit
in multiple entrance tests, and when selected, with load of different types of
fees make the course a very costly affair to afford. So when a Engineer or
Technocrat employed in Govt sector tries to display his wisdom of his degree so
obtained with so much labour, money and experience, he is not simply allowed
and his employers teach him that such a practice is termed as illegal and
corrupt. After all, if a engineer or
technocrat also starts making project reports or offer consultancy services
from their homes for their private clients, un connected with their official
work, why this is being labeled as undesirable way of earning by their
employers. They can also be given permission with certain conditions as is
being done in the case of Law officers by Govt.
We shall not confuse `Private Practice` with Acceptance
of Fee and Honorariums in service rules
for Govt employees. The first one is employee driven activity while second one
is mostly employer driven activity. Acceptance of Honorarium is well known
while acceptance of Fee is unheard for Govt officials.
An Honorarium is a recurring or non recurring payment
granted to a government servant as remuneration for special work of an occasional
or intermittent character, like performing work in election duties, translation
work from regional languages to English /hindi or vice versa, giving lecture to
other organizations or working as Invigilators in competitions, exams etc. The
honorarium given varies from Rs 500/- per day to Rs 2000/- per day
depending upon the work, outside
organization as well as employees designation or pay in service. But such works
given to all and are not the domain of engineer or technocrat.
A Fee means a recurring or non-recurring payment to a
government service from a source other than consolidated fund of
Govt of India (DOPT circular of Oct 2008) also allows a Govt
servant to act as `Arbitrator` in disputes between Govt of India and private
parties or between private parties. The honorarium paid in such cases are Rs
500/- per month to Rs 10000/- per case. But such works are normally given to
legal fraternity rather than technical luminaries.
Articles normally appear in various newspapers in
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