173. At every hospital or dispensary maintained or aided under section 171, the sick poor of the cantonment and other inhabitants of the cantonment suffering from infectious or contagious diseases, and, with the sanction of the Board, any other sick persons, may receive medical or surgical treatment free of cost, and, if treated as in-patients, shall be either dieted gratuitously or, if the medial officer in charge so directs, shall be granted subsistence allowance on such scale as the Board may fix: Provided that the subsistence allowance shall not be less than the lowest allowance for the time being fixed for the subsistence of judgment debtors by the ²[Government] under section 57 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.