Bardswell, J.

1. The Joint Magistrate of Devakottah made a complaint against two persons of an offence punishable under Section 188, I.P.C., for having disobeyed orders passed in proceedings under Section 145, Criminal P.C. The present petitioner, who is one of the two persons complained against, applied to the District Magistrate of Ramnad to have the complaint withdrawn but the District Magistrate without giving notice to the petitioner dismissed his petition summarily. It is contended by Mr. Jayarama Ayyar on behalf of the petitioner that the application to the District Magistrate for the withdrawal of the complaint was an appeal and that under the proviso Clause (1), Section 421, Criminal P.C. it should not have been summarily dismissed without giving the petitioner or his pleader an opportunity of being heard. A number of decisions of this Court have been quoted with reference to Clause 6 of Section 195, Criminal P.C., 1898. These decisions, however do not apply and are not of great importance as the present Code has very much varied the law under Section 195 and the connected sections from what it was formerly. Under Section 195 of the old Code, no Court could take cogniz