(1) Whenever 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, or 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 under this Act if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge and 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 or individuals; and
(b) director, in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 33
Section 33 provides for the judicial confiscation of arms, ammunition, or conveyances in cases where an offense has been committed but the offender is unknown, untraceable, or cannot be brought to trial.
If a client's licensed firearm was stolen by criminals and later recovered by police as an abandoned weapon, intervene under Section 33 before the Magistrate. Produce the original FIR of theft, the valid arms licence, and NDAL registration to reclaim possession and defeat state confiscation.