Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
Cognizance of Offences.- (1) No Court shall take cognizance of a complaint against any person for an offence- (a) under clause (a) of section 22 unless an application in respect of the facts constituting such offence has been presented under section 20 and has been granted wholly or in part, and the appropriate Government or an officer authorised by it in this behalf has sanctioned the making of the complaint; (b) under clause (b) of section 22 or under section 22-A, except on a complaint made by, or with the sanction of, an Inspector. (2) No Court shall take cognizance of an offence - (a) under clause (a) or clause (b) of section 22, unless complaint thereof is made within one month of the grant of sanction under this section; (b) under section 22-A, unless the complaint thereof is made within six months of the date on which the offence is alleged to have been committed. 1[22C. Offences by companies.- (1) If the person committing any 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 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 exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence. (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where any 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 of the company 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.