Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
16. Offences by Companies
(1) Where any 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 provide 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 also 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;
(b) "director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.