Section 9 — Offences by companies.

9. Offences by companies.—(1) If the person contravening any of the provisions of 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 contravention 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 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 (1) where an offence under this Act has been 

committed by a company and it is proved that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance 

of, or is attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director or manager, secretary or other officer of the 

company, such director, manager, secretary or other officer of the company, 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.