Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981
40. Offences by Companies.
(1)
Where an offence under this Act has been committed by a company, every person
who, at the time the offence was committed, was directly 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 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 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 be deemed to
be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and
published 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.