(1) If the person committing any offence under this Act is a company every person who
at the time the offence was committed was in charge of and was responsible to the company
for the conduct of the business of the company as well as the company shall be deemed to
be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished
accordingly :
Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to
any punishment provided in this Act if he proves that the offence was committed without
his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such
offence.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) where any offence under this Act
has been committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been committed with
the consent or connivance of or is attributable to any neglect on the part of any director
manager secretary or other officer of the company such director manager secretary or other
officer of the company shall also be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be
liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
Explanation : For the purposes of this section -
(a) "company" means any body corporate and includes a firm or other association
of individuals and
(b) "director" in relation to a firm means a partner in the firm.
