General principles of drafting

1. Three kinds of drafting

The KSLU syllabus for this clinical course (revised from the academic year 2026-27) groups the work in three families.

• Pleadings — documents filed in court: plaint, written statement, interlocutory applications, petitions, affidavits, appeals and revisions, criminal complaints, bail applications and writ petitions. They state a party’s case so that the court can frame issues and decide.
• Conveyancing — documents that create, transfer or record rights between private parties: sale, mortgage, lease and gift deeds, wills, powers of attorney, trust, partition, rectification and partnership deeds, promissory notes.
• Legislative drafting — Bills, Acts, rules, regulations and notifications, which turn a policy into law binding on everyone. The revision added this, together with plain language drafting, on the basis of a Bar Council of India circular of 13 December 2025.

2. Before drafting: facts, law, purpose

Every exercise begins with three questions, and the draft should not begin until each is answered.

• What are the facts? Take full instructions: names, ages, addresses, dates, amounts, survey numbers, boundaries, documents in hand. A plaint with a wrong date of loan can fail on limitation; a sale deed with a wrong survey number conveys the wrong land.
• What law governs the document? For a pleading, the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) or the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), plus the substantive law that gives the cause of action. For a conveyance, the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, the Registration Act, 1908, stamp law (in Karnataka the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957) and the Indian Contract Act, 1872. For legislation, the Constitution and the General Clauses Act, 1897.
• What must the document achieve, and for whom? A plaint is read by a judge who must find a cause of action in it; a deed is read years later by a purchaser, a bank or a court; an Act is read by officials and citizens. Write for that reader.

3. Rules that apply to every document

• Accuracy and precision. Use the word that says exactly what is meant. “Shall” imposes a duty; “may” confers a discretion; “must” states a condition. Do not use them loosely.
• Consistency. Once a thing is called “the Schedule Property”, call it that every time. A change of word suggests a change of meaning (the rule against “elegant variation”, a point Reed Dickerson presses in The Fundamentals of Legal Drafting, a prescribed reference).
• Definitions. Define a term once, early, and only if it is used more than once or has a special meaning. Use “means” for an exhaustive definition and “includes” for an extending one.
• Short sentences and the active voice. “The Purchaser shall pay the balance” tells the reader who must act. “The balance shall be paid” does not.
• Numbered paragraphs, one point each. Order VI Rule 2(2) of the CPC requires this for pleadings, and the same habit makes deeds and Bills easier to read and to cite.
• Figures and words. State sums of money and important dates in both (“Rs. 4,00,000 (Rupees Four Lakh only)”).
• Avoid ambiguity. “And/or”, “etc.”, “the said party” where there are two parties, and a pronoun with two possible antecedents are the usual culprits.
• Full description of persons and property. A person by name, parentage, age, occupation and address; immovable property by survey or municipal number, extent, village, taluk, district and four boundaries, usually in a Schedule.

4. The standard parts of a deed

The traditional English form still shapes Indian conveyancing. In order:

1. Title (“Sale Deed”) and the date and place of execution.
2. Parties, each fully described, with a short name used thereafter (“hereinafter called the Vendor”).
3. Recitals (“Whereas” clauses): how the transferor got title and why the deed is being made.
4. Testatum (“Now this deed witnesses”) and the consideration with its receipt.
5. Operative words: the words that actually transfer (“the Vendor hereby conveys and transfers”).
6. Parcels: the property, normally by reference to the Schedule.
7. Habendum: the extent of the interest (“to have and to hold absolutely”).
8. Covenants: title, indemnity, further assurance, encumbrances.
9. Testimonium (“In witness whereof”), signatures and attestation by witnesses.
10. Schedule of property.

5. Model: a drafting checklist and a clause put right

Before handing in any exercise, run down this list:

1. Are all parties fully and consistently described?
2. Is every legal requirement of the document met (court, form, stamp, signature, attestation, registration, verification)?
3. Is each paragraph one point, numbered, and in a logical order?
4. Are amounts and dates in figures and words, and do they agree throughout?
5. Is any word used in two senses, or any thing called by two names?
6. Does the prayer or operative part give exactly what the client needs?

6. Interpretation as the drafter’s test

A drafter should read the draft as a hostile reader would: the opponent looking for a gap or a judge deciding between two readings. Aharon Barak’s Purposive Interpretation in Law, the third prescribed reference, explains that courts read a text in the light of its purpose. A drafter who states the purpose clearly (in recitals, a preamble or an objects clause) makes that interpretation work for the client rather than against.

How this is examined

There is no written paper. Under the scheme in Appendix-5 of the KSLU notification, each student prepares 15 drafting exercises (pleadings and legislative drafting, at least 5 of them legislative) worth 45 marks, and 15 conveyancing exercises worth 45 marks, at 3 marks each. At least 5 exercises must apply plain language techniques. The exercises are handwritten on one side of bond paper, bound with a certificate from the course teacher and the Director or Principal that the work is bona fide, and carry a cover page (examination, subject, seat number, centre code) and a content page. A viva-voce of 10 marks at the end of the semester is conducted by the Director or Principal and the course teacher. In the viva, expect questions on the parts of a deed, the difference between “shall” and “may”, and why a draft needs definitions.