law: Company Secretaries Act, 1980
  28. Offences by Companies
  (1) If the person committing an offence under
  
  this Act is a company, the company as well as every person in charge of, and responsible
  
  to, the company for the conduct of its business at the time of the commission
  
  of the offence 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 offence was
  
  committed without his knowledge or that he had 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 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 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.