Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977
15. Offences by companies
(1) Where an offence under this Act has been committed
by 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 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 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 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.