Supreme Court of India rules companies can face prosecution without naming officials

The Supreme Court of India has issued a landmark ruling establishing that a corporation can be prosecuted for criminal offenses requiring a guilty mind (mens rea) even if no specific director, official, or employee is named as a co-accused.

In the case of Sanofi India Ltd. v. Central Bureau of Investigation, the Court addressed allegations involving a conspiracy to manipulate procurement processes at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). While the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged the pharmaceutical company, no individual employees were arraigned in the chargesheet. The company had argued that a corporation cannot be tried for conspiracy unless the natural person acting on its behalf is also identified.

Rejecting this argument, a bench of Justices J. B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra dismissed the appeal and established a new three-stage framework for attributing the mental state of a natural person to a corporation. The Court clarified that while identification is necessary for proof at trial, the absence of a named human 'alter ego' cannot be used as a procedural shield to quash investigations under Section 482 of the CrPC.