At a time when professionals charge hefty sitting fees, the government-appointed directors who worked long-hours to revive crisis-hit Maytas Infra worked for free.

"We have done our job. It was a public service for us. Whatever the government has assigned us, we have done it," said K Ramalingam, one of the four nominee directors appointed by the government to bailout the company.

The other three nominee directors are former ICAI president Ved Jain, noted corporate lawyer O P Vaish, Assocham past president Anil K Aggarwal. All of them, experts in their own fields, worked on an honorary basis.

"We the government appointed directors did not charged any sitting fee from the company either to attend its board meeting or any other functions," said Vaish.

Adding to it, he said,"its only once in a while in your life, you get to do such work."

Consenting to it Ramalingam said it was a public service for them and they never asked for any money for it.

As per the Companies Act 1956, directors could be paid a maximum of Rs 20,000 per sitting of the board or one per cent of the total profit of the company could be distributed among the independent directors.