Chapter VIII PENALTIES AND PROCEDURE

Whoever contravenes the provisions of this Act or of any rule or bye-law or fails to comply with any notice, order or requisition issued under this Act or any rule or bye-law, shall, on conviction, be punished with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, and with further fine which may extend to fifty rupees for every day on which such contravention or failure continues after the first conviction.

No Court shall take cognizance of any offence under this Act, except on the complaint of 1[the Authority] made within six months next after the commission of the offence.

1. (1) Where an offence under this Act has been committed by a company, every person who at the time the offence was committed was responsible to the company for the conduct of its business 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, 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. (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 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.

It shall be lawful for any officer of 1[the Authority] authorised by it in this behalf to arrest and hand over to the officer in charge of the nearest police station any person who commits or is suspected to have committed offence punishable under section 55 and who on demand refuses to give his true name and address or where there is reason to believe that the name or address given by him is not correct. Such police officer shall adopt such legal measures as may be necessary to cause that person to be taken before a Magistrate with the least possible delay.

1. (1) The Member-Secretary or any other officer of 1[the Authority] authorised by it by general or special order in that behalf may, either before or after this institution of proceedings for any offence punishable under this Act, accept from any person charged with such offence by way of composition of the offence a sum not exceeding two thousand rupees, as he thinks proper.
2. (2) On payment of such sum, no further proceedings shall be taken against the said person in respect of the same offence.