Offences by companies

(1)If the person committing any 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: Provided that nothing contained in the 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 the 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 that the commission of the offence is attributed 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 be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly. Explanation- For the purpose of this section, — (a)‘Company’ means any body corporate and includes a firm or other association of individuals or a society or a co-operative society, (b)‘Director’ in relation to firm, means partner in the ‘firm.