No suit or other legal proceeding shall lie against the Chairman, members an'd the officers and staff I appointed under this Act in respect of anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act or any rules made 1 thereunder. I ; 16. Ofence~ by companies.-(1) Where an offence under this Art bas been committed by a company, every person who, at the time the I cBcnce was committal, - was in charge of and - - wai - responsible .-. to, the I I I ': ' :96 TAMIL NADU GOVERNMENT GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY +& 1 sr . - ---.-- - -- - -.-- - -- ---- . ?J ; ' I i re". ,, , company for the conduct of the business of the company as well as 2,. the company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall ' J . be ljablc to be proceeded against and punished accordingly : - .
. Provided that nothins contained in this sub-section shall render I any such person liable to any punishmerit, if he proves that the off- , ence was committed without his knowledge orethat he had exercised A: 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 with the consent or connivarlce 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 dher officer shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punisl~ed a ~ ~ ~ r d i n g l y .
I I Exp1nnation.-For the purposes of this section.--
(a) " company '' nleans 'any body corpo other association of individuals ; and and incl
(b)l " director " in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm. '