Petition - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition petition

Definition :

Petition, a supplication made by an inferior to a superior, having jurisdiction to grant redress.

The subject has a right to petition the sovereign, or the two Houses of Parliament, and all commit-ments and prosecutions for such petitioning are declared by the Bill of Rights (see BILL OF RIGHTS) to be illegal.

But by 13 Car. 2, st. 1, c. 5, prior in date to the Bill of Rights, it was enacted that not more than twenty names should be signed to a petition to the Crown or either House of Parliament for alteration of matters in Church or State, without the previous approval of the contents by three justices or the majority of a grand jury, and further, that no petition should be presented by a company of more than ten persons.

There are several regulations respecting petitions to Parliament, which, if neglected in any one parti-cular, will prevent their reception. For instance, signatures or marks must be original, not copies nor signatures of agents on behalf of others; no chairman of a public meeting can sign for the whole meeting (though the common seal of a corporation is received as the petition of the whole corporate body). In the Chancery Division of the High Court, petitions (as to which see (English) R.S.C. 1883, Ord. LII., rr. 16 et seq.) are used for getting money out of Court, and a variety of other mattes, but many matters in which a petition was formerly necessary are now disposed of on originating summons. Consult Dan. Ch. Pr.

In bankruptcy, proceedings are commenced by one or more creditors of the debtor, or the debtor himself, filing a petition in the Court of Bankruptcy, praying that the debtor may be adjudged bankrupt. See ACT OF BANKRUPTCY.

Petition to wind up a company. A winding up of a company by order of the Court must be begun by petition [(English) Companies Act, 1929, s. 170]. For form of petition see (English) Winding-up Rules, 1929, and WINDING UP.

Divorce and matrimonial suits, and suits instituted under the Legitimacy Declaration Act, are commenced by petition.

As to election petitions, see that title.

Petition means a written statement of material facts, requesting the Court to grant the relief or remedy based on those facts. It is a peculiar mode of seeking redress recognised by law. P. Philip v. Director of Enforcement, AIR 1976 SC 1185: (1976) 2 SCC 174: (1976) 3 SCR 532.

Petition and application mean the same thing, Nanjappa v. Vimala Devi, AIR 1957 Mys 44.

Means a formal written application to a superior for the exercise of his authority,A Dictionary of Law, Willium C. Anderson, 1889, p. 620.