Section Text
(1) Any warehouseman knowingly issuing a negotiable warehouse receipt without taking the actual physical delivery of the goods in his warehouse or a warehouseman or an agent or servant of the warehouseman who issues a warehouse receipt without reasonably satisfying himself that the goods for which such warehouse receipt is issued have actually been received or the number, weight or grade of the goods corresponds to the number, weight or grade specified in the warehouse receipt or the goods are under his actual control at the time of issuing such warehouse receipt, commits an offence and shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to four times the value of the goods or with both.
(2) A warehouseman or an agent or servant of the warehouseman, who knowingly issues a duplicate negotiable warehouse receipt without substantially following the procedure for the issue of a duplicate warehouse receipt, commits an offence and shall be punishable for such offence with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both.
(3) A warehouseman or an agent or servant of the warehouseman, who, knowingly that the negotiable warehouse receipt in respect of such goods is outstanding and is uncancelled, delivers the goods without obtaining possession of such negotiable warehouse receipt at or before the time of such delivery and thereby causes unlawful loss or gain to any person, commits an offence and shall be punishable for such an offence by imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both.
(4) A warehouseman who fails, on surrender of a negotiable warehouse receipt by the depositor or endorsee and payment of all his lawful charges and cancellation of encumbrances endorsed on the receipt, within the declared shelf-life of the goods, as mentioned therein to deliver the goods represented by the receipt commits an offence and shall be punishable for such offence with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to three times the value of the goods or with both.
(5) Any depositor, who declared as the value of the goods delivered by him for storage with a warehouseman an amount which he does not believe to be the proper value, commits an offence and shall be punishable for such an offence with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees.
Section 44 - Offences by companies(1) Where an offence under this Chapter is committed by a company, every person, who at the time the offence was committed, was in charge of the company or was responsible for making the deposit, as the case may be, 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 punishment if he proves that the contravention took place without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent such contravention.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where any offence under this Chapter has been committed by a company and it is proved that such an offence has been committed with the consent or connivance 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 the 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 of individuals; and
(b) "director", in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.
Section 45 - Cognizance of offences by courts(1) No court shall take cognizance of any offence punishable under this Act, save on a complaint made by the Authority or by any officer authorised in writing in this behalf by the authority.
(2) No court inferior to that of a Metropolitan Magistrate or a Judicial Magistrate of the first class shall try any offence punishable under this Act.