Section 26. Offences by Companies

(1) If the person committing offence under this Act is a company, the company, as well as every person in charge of an responsible to the company for the conduct of its business at the time of the commission of the offence shall be deemed to be quality 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 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 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 that the commission of the offence is attributable to any neglect on the part of, any secretary, director, manager, or other officer of the company, such secretary, director, manager, 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 purpose 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.