Official Secrets Act, 1923
15. Offences by companies
(1) If the person committing an offence under
this Act. is a company, every person who, at the time the offence was
committed, was in charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the
conduct of 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 such 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 negligence 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 a body corporate
and includes a firm or other association of individual; and
(b) "director", in relation to a
firm, means a partner in the firm.]