Offences by Companies and certain other persons :
Where an offence committed by a person 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 – – section 137(1) of CGST Act.
Notwithstanding anything contained in section 137(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 – section 137(2) of CGST Act.
Company includes firm and director includes partner –(a) “company” means a 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.
Liability of partner, karta or managing trustee – Where an offence under this Act has been committed by a taxable person being a partnership firm or a Limited Liability Partnership or a Hindu Undivided Family or a trust, the partner or karta or managing trustee, as the case may be, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly and the provisions of section 137(2) shall apply mutatis mutandis to such persons – section137(3) of CGST Act.
No punishment if offence without knowledge or when due diligence exercised – Nothing contained in this 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 had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence – section 137(4) of CGST Act.