(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 the business of the company, as well as the company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be tiable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:
34-23 Public notice how to be made known.
Reasonable time for notice.
Offence by eompanies" 34-24 GUJARAT GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, EX. 2O-T2-2OT} IPART IV Elfect of other laws.
Application of provisions of section 65 of Gujarat Land Revenue Code"
1879.
Provided that, nothing contained above shall render any such person liable to any 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 (l), 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 :
Explanatioz. - For the purposes of this section-
(a) "company" means any corporate body and includes a firm or other association of individuals; and
(b) "director" in relation to a firm means a partner in the firm.