Contact Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970
25. 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 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 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, managing agent or any other officer of the company, such
director, manager, managing agent or such 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 purpose 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.