law: National Environment Tribunal Act, 1995
  26. Offences by companies
  (1) Where any offence under this Act has been
  
  committed by a company, every person who, at the time the offence was
  
  committed, was directly 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 provided in
  
  this Act, 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 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.