Company Secretaries Act, 1980
28. 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 :
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 had 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" 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.