law: Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977
  15. Offences by companies
  (1) Where an offence under this Act has been committed
  
  by 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
  
  offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly:
  PROVIDED that nothing contained in this
  
  sub-section shall render any 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 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.