Drafting refers to the act of preparing the legal document like agreements, contracts and
deeds. In drafting besides seeking right words, the draftsman seeks the right concepts.
Conveyancing refers to the transferring of a property to its new owner by means of deeds
and whereas pleading refers to a legal document filed in a law suit. This can be a
document pertaining to the initiation of litigation or a document in response to this
initiation.
When a person comes to seek the assistance of court of law in any matter, he has to prepare a
statement of his claims, and the facts on which such claims are founded. Such statements
fully drawn up, setting out all contentions are called “pleadings”. Thus pleadings are the
foundations of all sort litigation. No judicial system in the world can do justice in any matter
unless and until the court of justice is fully aware as to the claims and contentions of the
plaintiff and of the counter claims and defences of the defendant. There can be Civil
Pleadings like Plaint, Interlocutory Applications, Execution Petition, Affidavits etc. and
Criminal Pleadings like Complaint, Bail Application etc.
When the civil codes came to be drafted, the principles of pleadings were also given statutory
form. Vide Order VI Rule 1 “pleading” – shall mean plaint or written statement. The
elaborated definition of pleading is that pleadings are statements, written, drawn up and filed
by each party to a case, stating what his contentions will be at the trial and giving all such
details as his opponent needs to know in order to prepare his reply for the same.
Fundamental Rules of pleadings under Civil Procedure Code:
Pleadings shall contain material facts and material facts only.
Pleadings shall state only facts on which the party pleadings relies and not the
evidence by which they are to be proved.
Pleadings shall state such material facts concisely, but with precision and certainty.
Conveyancing:
Conveyancing is an art of drafting deeds and documents whereby any title, right or interest in
the property is transferred from one person to another. Such person can be natural or artificial
i.e. Corporate, the Company, the Society or the Corporate Sole as the case may be.
Conveyancing is based on law and legal principles which have been evolved in the sphere of
conveyancing over years or rather centuries. The objective of Conveyancing cannot be
possible without a thorough knowledge and understanding of the legal provisions applicable
on the subject matter of transfer of property or right therein.
Different types of deed require knowledge of different types of law on which those deeds are
based. No legislation in India has been ever passed on the law of conveyancing. Example
power of attorney , will, mortgages, sale deed, gifts and lease etc.
Principles of drafting a document may be classified into 4 parts:
( 1) Clarity of expression
(2) Design of Draft
(3) Precision of language
(4) Communicability of the intention of the parties to the document
Essentials of a Deed:
(1) The non-operative part
(2) The operative part
(3) The format part
The non-operative part contains description or name of deed, date of the deed, parties to the
deed and the recitals.
The operative part contains testatum or premises, habendum, exception and reservations and
covenants.
The formal part contains testimonium, signature and attestation, parcels of description of the
parties