(1) Where an offence under this Act has been committed by 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 such person liable toany punishment if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he hadexercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where any offence under this Act has been committed by a company and it is proved that the offence has been committed withthe consent or connivance of, or is attributable to any neglect on the part of any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the company, as the case may be, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
Explanation- For the purpose of this section-
(a) “Company” means anybody corporate and includes a firm, institution, a society, atrust or other association of individual;
and
(b) “Director” in relation to a firm means a person in the firm.