25. Offences by body corporate, etc.

Where an offence under this Act or any rules made thereunder has been committed by a body corporate, a partnership or an unincorporated association of persons, any person who at the time of the commission of the offence was a director, manager, partner, secretary or other similar officer thereof, or was purporting to act in any such capacity, shall also be guilty of that offence unless he proves that —

the offence was committed without his consent or connivance; and

he had exercised all such diligence to prevent the commission of the offence as he ought to have exercised having regard to the nature of his functions in that capacity and to all the circumstances. [20A