law: Essential Commodities Act, 1955 
  10. Offences by Companies. 
  
  (1) If the person contravening an order made
  
  under Sec. 3 is a company, every person who, at the time the contravention 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 contravention 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 contravention took place without his knowledge or that he
  
  exercised all due diligence to prevent such contravention.
  
  
  (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.