Professional Ethics, Pleadings, Conveyancing and Moot Courts

It is divided in to three parts

I. Part –A: Standards of Etiquettte And Professional Ethics.
Prescribed Legislation:
The Advocates Act, 1961
Rules Governing Advocates:
a. Restrictions on Senior Advocates
b. Standards of Professional Conduct and Etiquette
c. Cases on Professional Misconduct
d. Rules Relating to Advocates’ Right to take up Law teaching

II. Part- B: Pleadings

Prescribed Legislation:
The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, Orders VI to VIII
i) Pleadings in general
a. Objects of Pleadings
b. Fundamental Rules of Pleadings
c. Forms of Pleadings

III. Part – C: Conveyancing

a. Components parts of Deed
b. Forms of Deeds and Notices.
 Drafting is the soul of legal profession. Its an act of writing of
documents. It is the preliminary stage of pleading and conveyancing. So drafting is
done for two things i.e. Pleading and Conveyancing.
 Meaning of Pleading:
 Pleadings are statements in writing drawn up and filed by each party to a case,
stating what his contentions will be at trial and giving all such details as his
opponent needs to know in order to prepare his case in answer.
 Drafting of the pleadings is an art. It demands high degree of professional skill,
knowledge, expertise and experience.
 The function of the pleadings is not simply for the benefit of the party but also and
perhaps primarily for the assistance of the court by defining with the precision the
areas beyond which, without the leave of the court and consequential amendment of
the pleading, the conflict must not be allowed to extend.
 The purpose of rules regarding pleading is to advance justice and to prevent
multiplicity of the proceedings. Moderation in language is the hallmark of the proper
pleadings.
 We may classify pleadings under five broad heads:
I. Pleadings in a suit
II. Pleadings in other civil proceedings before a court and tribunal
III. Pleadings in writ proceedings
IV. Pleadings in an election petition.
V. Pleadings before quasi judicial authorities and tribunals.

 Pleadings in a suit: as a rule there are only two pleadings in a suit.

a. A statement of a claim is called the “Plaint” in which the plaintiff sets out his cause
of action with all necessary particulars.
a. 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 is in his favour adding such legal objections as he wishes to take
to the claim.
 Replication: No pleading subsequent to written statement of a defendant, other
that by way of a defence to a set-off or a counter claim can be presented except by
leave of the Court and upon such terms as Court seems fit, but the Court may at
any time require a written statement or an additional written statement from any of
the parties. (Order VIII Rule 9 CPC) Such leave is normally given to a party whose
opponent has been permitted to amend his pleading. Such subsequent W.S. is
normally called, in the case of plaintiff, replication or rejoinder and in the case of a
defendant an additional written statement
 Object of Pleadings:
 The whole object of the pleading is to give fair notice to each party of what the
opponent’s case is, and to ascertain with precision, the points on which the parties
agree and those on which they differ and to thus to bring the parties to a definite issue.
 The purpose of the pleading is also to eradicate irrelevancy in order to have fair trial and
the other party may not be taken by surprise.
 The main object of the pleadings is to find out and narrow down the controversy between
the parties. The contentions which are not based on the pleadings cannot be permitted
to be raised either at trial stage or at appellate stage.
 Construction of the pleadings:
It is well settled that in the absence of the pleadings, evidence if any produced by the
parties cannot be considered and no party should be permitted to travel beyond its
pleadings and all necessary and material facts should be pleaded by the party in support of
the case set up by it. No evidence can be led on a fact not pleaded.
 Fundamental Rules of pleadings: The fundamental rules of the pleadings
are four, viz,
1st Rule: Every pleading must state facts and not law unless required by
statute.
2nd Rule: It must state all the material facts and material facts only (O.VI R.2).
3rd Rule: It must states only the facts on which the party pleading relies, and
not the evidence by which they are to be proved and,
4th Rule: It must state such facts concisely but with precision and certainty.
 Pleadings in other civil proceedings:
The provisions of CPC do not as such necessarily applies to the pleadings
before the tribunals although these proceedings are civil in nature. To what
extent the provisions of CPC are applied to particular civil proceedings
depends on the statute under which the tribunal is created.
The Fundamental rules of pleadings mentioned above are broadly applicable
even to these civil proceedings, though because of the relatively summary
nature of those proceedings the same rules may not apply in their full rigour.
In many cases the proceedings are commenced not through a plaint but
through an “application”.
III. Pleadings in writ proceedings:
There is a distinction between a pleadings under CPC and a writ petition or a
counter affidavit filed in a writ petition. While in a pleading, the facts and not
the evidence are required to be pleaded, in a writ petition or as in a counter
affidavit not only the facts but also evidence in proof of such facts have to be
pleaded and annexed to it. Secondly, a writ petition is not entirely similar to a
plaint but par takes to some extent the character of a plaint and partly of a
memorandum of an appeal. The reason is that while challenging the validity
of judgment or order of a tribunal or executive authority is subject of a writ
petition. It is necessary to point out the legal flaws therein.
IV. Pleadings in an Election petition:
The fundamental rules of pleadings mentioned governs an election petition as
well. An election petition is, indeed construed even more strictly than a plaint
in a civil suit. The reason for the greater strictness in these proceedings is that
the right to file an election petition is not a common law right but a statutory
right.
V. Pleadings before quasi-judicial authorities:
The pleadings before these regulatory bodies have to be “Act specific”. Almost
each regulatory body has a prescribed form of the application/petition for
giving information and stating facts. General rules of pleadings are applicable
for pleadings before such quasi-judicial bodies and tribunals, though specific
provisions of CPC are not applicable.
ff
in the view of the language of O.VIII, R.9, the expression W.S. comprises a replication as
well.
 Sett-off and Counter-claim:
Set-off is provided in O.VIII R.6 whereas thee counter claim in O.VIII R.6A. Like set-off,
counter claim is not limited to money claims alone. A set-off is essentially a ground of
defence but a counter claim could arise only if the defendant could have filed an
independent suit in respect of the same.
 Pre-trial procedure, oral pleadings:
The judge is expected, at the first hearing of the suit (and before the settlement of issues),
to ascertain from the written pleadings whether he admits or denies them and to record
such admission and denials (O.X R.1). Statements so recorded may be called oral
pleading. Pleadings, therefore, also include statements of parties or counsel, recorded
before the framing of issues for clarification of the point in dispute.