JUDGMENT Stevens and Harington, JJ. - In this case the Rule was granted calling upon the District Magistrate to show cause why the order directing the prosecution of the Petitioner for an offence u/s 211 of the Indian Penal Code should not be set asid. 2. It appears that the Petitioner presented to the Collector a complaint as to the conduct of one of the Collector's subordinates, a tehsildar, who it was alleged, compelled him to go to the office, and kept him there until he paid some money and the petition ended with the prayer that the Collector should redress the Petitioner's grievances. The Collector proceeded to deal with the case as though it was a complaint within the meaning of Section 4 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He did not believe the statement of the Petitioner; he did not give the Petitioner an opportunity of calling his witnesses to substantiate the statements in his petition to the Collector, but purporting to act judicially, he dismissed the complaint and ordered the prosecution of the Petitioner for an offence u/s 211. 3. In our opinion this order must be set aside. In the first place, a petition to the Collector directed against one of his official inferiors and asking the Collector, as the head of the department, to redress the grievances of the Petitioner, is not a complaint within Section 4, Clause (h) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Magistrate in fact does not contend that it is, but he says that when he saw the Petitioner and got the Petitioner to repeat his statement on oath, that statement amounted to a complaint. 4. In our opinion the Magistrate was not justified in arbitrarily turning a departmental complaint into a criminal complaint. Moreover, if the Magistrate had been justified in taking the course that he did, he would still have been bound, if acting judicially, to have given the Petitioner an opportunity of calling his witnesses and proving his allegations. He did not do so. We think, therefore, that his proceedings were not warranted by law. 5. We accordingly make the Rule absolute. The order for prosecution u/s 211 is set aside.