Abdur Rahman, J.

1. The only question to be determined in this appeal is whether a suit for damages for malicious prosecution would be maintainable when no summons was issued to the plaintiff on a verbal complaint made against him to a Village Magistrate charging him with the offence of robbery. The facts may be briefly stated. Defendants 1 and 2 were stated to have lost some sheep on the 8th of September, 1934. They went on the next day to the village Magistrate of Mudukulathur and made a statement to him that certain persons including the plaintiff had taken away their sheep by force. The facts stated. by the defendants would have made the persons charged liable to be prosecuted for robbery. The Village Magistrate sent a report on the same day to the police and to the Stationary Sub-Magistrate. The Magistrate appears to have ordered an enquiry by the police which made a report on the 15 th January, 1935 that the complaint made by the defendants 1 and 2 was false and that no-robbery had taken place in fact. He (the Magistrate) thereupon declined to take any further action and the proceedings were dropped. During the enquiry conducted by the police, the plaintiff was not eve