King, J.

1. The appellant in this Second Appeal was a member of the Municipal Council, Coonoor. The Council had farmed out the right to collect fees on cart stands in Coonoor to one Fakeer Muhamad, and it appears that the appellant refused to pay Fakeer Muhammad certain fees which were demanded by him. Fakeer Muhammad took the matter to the respondent who was then the Chairman of the Coonoor Municipality and after exhausting every attempt to induce the appellant to pay the fees to Fakeer Muhammad, the respondent finally prosecuted him before the Bench Magistrate of Coonoor under Sch, IV, Rule 30, Sub-rule 2 read with Section 344 of the Madras District Municipalities Act. The Bench Court acquitted the appellant on the ground that the fees were due not to the Council but to the contractor and therefore Section 344 of the Act did not apply. The appellant thereupon filed a suit against the Chairman (respondent) for damages for malicious prosecution in the Court of the Subordinate Judge, Nilgiris. The Subordinate Judge held that the prosecution was malicious and overruled the objection raised by the Chairman that under Section 350 of the Act he had not been given the requisite no