LEGAL DRAFTING

MEANING OF PLEADING

When the suit or case is brought in the court of

law, we have to give facts of the case in the court,
and these submissions what we give in court of
law are technically called pleading.

Pleadings are the statements in writing

drawn up and filed up by each party to
the case, stating what his contentions
will be at the trial and giving up all
such details as his opponent needs to
know in order to prepare his case in
answer.

One who puts his case first ie., in the form of

plaint (civil proceedings) is called Plaintiff
and the other one who has to reply the facts
of the plaint and puts his case in the form of
Written statement is called defendant.

PLEADING IN A SUIT

As a rule , there are only two pleadings in a

suit,viz:

A statement of claim , called the Plaint, in which

plaintiff sets out his cause of action with all
necessary particulars;
A statement of defence is called the Written
Statement, in which the defendant deals with every
material fact alleged by the plaintiff in the plaint and
states any new facts which tells in his favour ,
adding such legal objections as he wishes to take to
the claim.

In this way pleading may mean plaint

and written statement both.

Object of pleading

The whole of the object of pleading is to

give fair notice to each party of what the
opponent case is and to ascertain with
precision , the points on which the parties
agree and those on which they differ , and
thus to bring the parties to definite issue.

FUNDAMENTAL RULES OF PLEADING

- That every pleading must state facts not
law;
- that it must state all material facts and the
material facts only;
- that it must state only the facts on which
the parties pleading rely, and not the
evidence by which they are to be proved;
- it must state facts concisely but with
precision and certainty.

Following unnecessary facts to be

omitted:
Matters

of law
Matters of evidence
Matters not alleged in the opponents
pleading
Matters presumed by law
the performance of condition precedent
the words of the documents
Matters not yet material to the case

Order 7 of Civil Procedure Code makes provision

regarding the particulars of the plaint.
Rule 1 to 8 of Order 7 provides the particulars in a
plaint
Rule 9 lays down the procedure of plaint being
admitted.
Rule 10 provides for the return of the plaint
Rules 11 to 13 deals with rejection of plaint
Rules 14 to 18 of Order 7 deals the provisions
relating to production of documents.

Plaint can be divided in 3 parts:

Part I- The heading and Title
Part-II- Body of plaint
Part-III- Relief claimed.

TITLE OF THE PLAINT

Order 7 Rule 1-A provides that the name of the

court should be mentioned first in which the suit
is brought.
Section 9 of CPC provides that the court shall
have jurisdiction to try all suits of Civil nature
except suits of which their cognizance is either
expressly or impliedly barred.

Court in which suits to be instituted

(Sec15)
Every suit shall be instituted in the
court of the lowest grade competent
to try it.

A MODEL FORM OF A PLAINT

Title of the plaint

The

name of the court

In the Court of ___________at____________
In the Honble High Court of Judicature at Allahabad.
In the Court of Civil Judge, Bombay.

SUIT NUMBER

Second line of the plaint gives the suit number.

In the plaint we only need to write the year
Suit

No..of 1971
Title Suit Noof 2011
Original Suit No..of 2013

IN THE COURT OF CIVIL JUDGE,PATNA

Suit No..of 2010.

PARTIES NAME

PARTIES ARE DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS-ONE IS

PLAINTIFF AND THE OTHER IS DEFENDANT .
FULL DISCRIPTION OF THE PARTIES IS NEEDED IN
THE PLAINT
FULL DESCRIPTION INCLUDES NAME OF FATHER,
AGE OF THE PERSON AND THE COMPLETE
POSTAL ADDRESS OF THE PERSON

Next to the heading ,should be written the

title or cause title consisting of The
name , description and place of
residence of each plaintiff; and
The
name, description and place of
residence of each defendant.

IF THERE ARE MORE THAN ONE PLAINTIFF THEY

SHOULD BE NUMBERED LIKE 1&2&3&..
SIMILARLY IN CASE OF MORE THAN ONE
DEFENDANT THEY SHOULD BE NUMBERED LIKE
1&2&. AND THE COMPLETE ADDRESS OF ALL
THE PERSONS IS ESSENTIAL

A MINOR CANNOT SUE OR BE SUED EXCEPT

THROUGH A NEXT FRIEND OR GUARDIAN

Nirmal Kumar, aged about 9 yrs, s/o Krishan

Kumar through Santosh Kumar s/o Hari Sahnkar,his
next friend r/o Village & P.O. Bidholi, District
DehradunPlaintiff
Versus
A, aged about 30 yrs, son of B, r/o Prem Nagar,
New Delhi
Defendant

Part II Body of the Plaint

After stating above particulars we come to a

sentence which is written just before we start
narrating the story of the case and this sentence
is as follows which is written in different styles:
(i) The above named plaintiff states as follows:
(ii) The plaintiff named above submits as under:
(iii)The humble petition of the plaintiff most
respectfully states as follows:

In the Court of Civil Judge,Lucknow.

Suit Noof 2011
Jagmohan Singh s/o Prabhu Singh a/a 35 yrs r/o
101 Aliganj , Lucknow
.Plaintiff.
Versus
Ram Singh s/o Shyam Singh a/a 40 yrs r/o 77
Mahanagar, Lucknow
..Defendant
The humble petition of the plaintiff above
mentioned most respectfully states as follows:

BODY OF THE PLAINT

1.

Narration of Facts

One

paragraph must contain only one

fact
all facts must be written in the third
person only
instead of I we must write plaintiff
All facts must be stated in a historical
manner.

Cause of Action

After narrating the whole story of the case

or matter we give in one paragraph cause
of action
Cause of Action means the bundle of facts
that necessitated the filing of the suit along
with date time and relevant topography.

The date mentioned for the cause of action

shows that the suit has been filed within
time according to the Indian Limitation Act
1963.
Generally from the bottom it is the third
paragraph which consist of cause of action.

JURISDICTION OF THE COURT

16. Suits to be instituted where subject-matter situate?

Subject to the pecuniary or other limitations prescribed by
any law, suits?
(a) for the recovery of immovable property with or without
rent or profits,
(b) for the partition of immovable property,
(c) for foreclosure, sale or redemption in the case of a
mortgage of or charge upon immovable property,
(d) for the determination of any other right to or interest in
immovable property,

(e) for compensation for wrong to

immovable property,
(f) for the recovery of movable property
actually under distraint or attachment,
All such types of suit shall be instituted in the
Court within the local limits of whose
jurisdiction the property is situate.

VALUATION

The plaintiff must separately and distinctly

give in his plaint the valuation of his claim
for the purposes of court fee and of
jurisdiction, though both may be stated in
one paragraph

For Court Fee : The valuation for the purpose of

court fee is required in those cases only in which
court-fee is charged, under the Court Fees Act on
the valuation ,ie., ad valorem
For jurisdiction : valuation of claim for the purpose
of jurisdiction in order to determine whether the
suit is within the pecuniary jurisdiction of the court
and also for determining the forum of appeal.

Part III-RELIEF

In a suit different kinds of relief can be

claimed., eg., recovery of debt, damages, or
movable property, possession of, or
declaration of title to ,immovable property,
declaration
of
any
right,
specific
performance, injunction, appointment of
receiver etc.,

Common relief prayed for are as follows:

(a)

a decree in favour of the plaintiff be awarded

against the contesting defendants.
(b) cost of the suit be awarded in favour of the
plaintiff.
(c ) any such other and further relief, as the court
may deem fit, and proper be awarded in favour
of the plaintiff

VERIFICATION

Verification is the last part of the plaint

Order VI Rule 15 CPC
Every pleading shall be verified at the foot by the
party pleading

The person shall verifying shall specify by

reference to the numbered paragraphs of
pleading, what he verifies of his own
knowledge and what he verifies upon the
information received and believed to be true
The verification shall be signed by the person
making it and shall state the date on which and
the place on which it was signed.