Offences by companies

(1)

If the person committing an offence under this Act is a company,

the company as well as every person in charge of, and responsible to, the company for the conduct of its

business at the time of the commission of the offence shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall

be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:

Proviso

Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to any

punishment 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 an 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 that the commission of the offence 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 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" with respect to any offence under section 24, section 25 or section 27, means any

body corporate and includes a firm or other association of individuals; and with respect to an offence

under section 26 means a body corporate; and

(b)

"director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.