law: Official Secrets Act, 1923 
  15. Offences by companies 
  
  
  (1) If the person committing an offence under
  
  this Act. is 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 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 such punishment provided in
  
  this Act. 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 negligence 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 a body corporate
  
  and includes a firm or other association of individual; and
  (b) "director", in relation to a
  
  firm, means a partner in the firm.]