Section 7 in The Dock Workers (Regulation Of Employment) Act, 1948
7. Cognizance of offences .-(1) No Court shall take cognizance of any offence made punishable by a scheme or of any abetment thereof, except on a report in writing of the facts constituting such offence or abetment made by an Inspector or by a person specially authorised in this behalf by the Government.
(2)Notwithstanding anything contained in the [Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (5 of 1898)], an offence made punishable by a scheme or an abetment thereof shall be triable only by a Presidency Magistrate or a Magistrate of the first class.[7-A. Offences by companies.-(1) If the person committing an offence made punishable by a scheme or any abetment thereof is a company, every person who, at the time the offence or abetment 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 or abetment 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, if he proves that the offence or abetment was committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence or abetment.(2)Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where an offence made punishable by a scheme or any abetment thereof has been committed by a company and it is proved that the offence or abetment 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 or abetment 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 and other association of individuals; and(b)"director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.]
