Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
3B. Offences by authorities and Government
departments. –
(1) Where any offence under this Act has been
committed -
a) by any department of Government, the head
of the department; or by any authority, every person who, at the time the
offence was committed, was directly in charge of, and was responsible to, the
authority for the conduct of the business of the authority as well as the
authority, 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 the head of the department or any person referred to
in clause (b), 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.
Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section(1),
where an offence punishable under the Act has been committed by a department of
Government or any authority referred to in clause (b) of sub-section (1) 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 officer, other than the
head of the department, or in the case of an authority, any person other than
the persons referred to in clause (b) of sub-section (1), such officer or
persons shall also be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable
to be proceeded against and punished accordingly].