1. The appellant in this case was Chairman of the Madura Municipality from 11th June 1921 till 25th June 1923, Ha was succeeded by Hajee B. Syed Shamsuddin Bahadur, whose term of office lasted till 1st July 1923, when he, in his turn, was succeeded by the defendant in the suit Mr. E. S. Naidu. The rules framed under the District Municipalities Act provide for periodical auditing of Municipal accounts and the Government have prescribed that there shall be an audit every half-year. During the appellants term of office such audits were regularly made. In 1924, when Mr. R.S. Naidu was Chairman, it was discovered that extensive frauds had been going on in the street-lighting department of the Municipality and a supplemental audit was made of the accounts of the period from 1st April 1921 till 18th January 1924. It was ascertained that owing to the negligence of successive Chairmen a large sum of money had been misappropriated and the auditor surcharged the appellant, his immediate predecessor and his two successors. In the case of the appellant and of Mr. R.S. Naidu, the surcharges were large, Rs. 7,000 odd and Rs. 6,000 odd, respectively. The rules in Schedule 4 of the Act allo