Section 23: Penalties

23. Penalties.___(1) Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of this Ordinance except 3[section 13A and] section 17 or of any order or direction issued under this Ordinance shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine or with both. (2) Where any person as aforesaid is a company or a body corporate, every director, manager, secretary, or other officer, and every agent and servant thereof, and in the case of an unlimited company or a company limited by guarantee, also any of its members, shall, subject to the provisions of the next succeeding sub-section, be punishable as if he had contravened the provisions of this Ordinance. (3) No such director, manager, secretary or other officer and no such agent, servant or member as is referred to in subsection (2) shall be prosecuted under this Ordinance unless he has been given an opportunity by the 1[Federal Government] to show cause, within such time as the 1[Federal Government] may specify why he should not be prosecuted, and if it is made to appear to the satisfaction of the 1[Federal Government] at any time before the institution of the prosecution that he has used due diligence to enforce the observance of the provisions of this Ordinance and the orders and directions issued there-under or that the offence has been committed without his knowledge or against his consent, the 1[Federal Government] shall forbear further proceedings against him: 1Subs. by F.A.O., 1975, Art. 2 and Table, for “Central Government”. 2Added by the Tea (Amdt.) Ordinance, 1960 (I of 1960), s. 16. 3Ins. ibid., s. 17. Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall prevent the 1[Federal Government] from proceeding against him further if on discovery of new facts it sees reason to do so.

Effective date: 1959-01-01

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