Lucknow, April 17 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has held that the board of directors is collectively responsible for the conduct of a company's business and cannot be easily absolved from liability in cases of environmental pollution. With this observation, the court dismissed two applications filed by directors of M/s Simplex Infrastructures Limited seeking to quash criminal proceedings initiated by the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB). Justice Brij Raj Singh passed the judgment on April 15 on two applications filed by Rajiv Mundhra and Bithal Das Mundhra and another person separately. The matter arose from a complaint case of 2021, filed by the UPPCB against M/s Simplex Infrastructures Limited under Section 37 of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. The complaint alleged that the company, while performing civil work as a sub-contractor for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) at the Panki Thermal Power Station in Kanpur, operated without the necessary consent and violated environmental norms. The special judicial magistrate (Pollution/CBI), Lucknow, issued a summoning order on March 14, 2022. The applicants, Rajiv Mundhra and Bithal Das Mundhra, challenged this order and the entire proceedings before the high court. "Where an offence under the Act has been committed by a company every person who was in charge of and was responsible to the company for the conduct of the business of the company is also made guilty of the offence by the statutory creation," the court observed. The court found no illegality or infirmity in the summoning order. It held that the applicants' defences must be raised during the trial rather than in a quashing petition. "Both the applications being devoid of merit, are rejected. Interim order, if any, stands vacated," the court ordered....