law: Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 
  25. Offences by companies 
  1.     
  
    Where
  
  an offence 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 such person liable to any punishment provided for
  
  the offences, if he has proved that the offence was committed without his
  
  knowledge or that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission
  
  of such offence.
  1.     
  
  
  2.     
  
  Notwithstanding
  
  anything contained in sub-section (1), where an offence 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 the
  
  offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
  Explanation.- For the purposes of this
  
  section,-
   "company" means any body
  
  corporate and includes a firm or other association of individuals; and
  a.     
  
    "director",
  
  in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.