Section 28 — Offence by companies

(1) If an offence under this Act is alleged to have been committed by a company, every person who, at the time of commission of the offence 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 to any punishment if he proves that the commission of offence took place without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent such commission. (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 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. 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.