gifts received from foreign dignitaries
(1) Manner of disposal of gifts received from foreign dignitaries those of ‘trifling’ or ‘symbolic’ value may be retained but others to be deposited in Toshakhana-purchase from Toshakhana on payment of assessed value permissible.
A large number of presents were made to officers of the Central and State Governments by the Soviet leaders, the King of Saudi Arabia and other foreign dignitaries who visited India during the last few months. The manner in which such presents offered by foreign dignitaries should be disposed of has been under consideration and the following decisions have been taken.
2. The presents referred to may be broadly classified into two categories. The first category would include presents which are symbolic in nature and not of any practical use, such as the Sword and the Ceremonial Robe presented by the King of Saudi Arabia. It has been decided that presents of this type may be retained by the recipients.
The second category would be presents which are of trivial value. According to the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1955 ‘trivial value’ has been defined as value not exceeding Rs. 20. In the case of presents from foreign dignitaries, it has been decided that the limit should be raised to Rs. 200 and that presents not exceeding this value may be retained by the recipients.
3. The question then arises with regard to the presents which do not come under either of the above categories. It has been suggested that the giving of presents by foreign dignitaries is not intended to influence the recipients in the discharge of their duties in favour of donor. On the other hand if such presents were to be handed over to Government and Government were to dispose them off by sale or otherwise, the information is likely to get known and the donors are bound to feel seriously offended. As many of the presents may have the names of the donors inscribed on them, their disposal by Government would also cause some embarrassment. At the same time, it is undesirable from the service point of view to allow officers to retain expensive presents which they may happen to get by virtue of their official position. Taking all relevant factors into account, it has been decided that in respect of presents not covered by the two categories referred to earlier, the officers should be asked to deposit them at the Government Toshakhana and the recipients may be given the option to purchase them from the Toshakhana at prices to be fixed by the authorities in charge. The presents which are not so purchased by the recipients will remain at the disposal of Government to be utilized for such purposes as Government may decide. It is possible that some of these presents may be of cultural value, which could very well be handed over to a Museum or a cultural body, while others may be found suitable for being used as counter presents by Government or Government officials. Those which are not disposed of in this manner will be kept on deposit in the Government Toshakhana and may even be sold to persons other than the recipients in suitable cases, though indiscriminate sale should certainly be avoided for reasons already stated.
[M.H.A. D.O. No. 25/49/55-Ests., dated 31.03.1956]