Section 23 — Offences by companies. | THE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM (ABOLITION) ACT, 1976

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23. 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. 

(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 

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 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. 

CHAPTER VII 

MISCELLANEOUS

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Next · Section 24Protection of action taken in good faith. →All sections / सभी धाराएँTHE BONDED LABOUR SYSTEM (ABOLITION) ACT, 1976 →

More sections of this act

Section 1 · Short title, extent and commencement.Section 2 · Definitions.Section 3 · Act to have overriding effect.Section 4 · Abolition of bonded labour system.Section 5 · Agreement, custom, etc., to be void.Section 6 · Liability to repay bonded debt to stand extinguished.Section 7 · Property of bonded labourer to be freed from mortgage, etc.Section 8 · Freed bonded labourer not to be evicted from homestead, etc.

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India Code, Government of India. Text fetched 14 Oct 2026. Check the linked official text and subsequent notifications when applying a provision.