Pleading - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition pleading

Definition :

Pleading. 1. In its general sense, the proceedings from the statement of claim to issue joined, i.e., the opposing statements of the parties. 2. Any part of these proceedings.

The science of pleading was no doubt derived from Normandy. The use of stated forms of pleading is not to be traced among the Anglo-Saxons. Pleading was cultivated as a science in the reign of Edward I. The object of pleading is to ascertain, by the production of an issue, the subject for decision. Before the Judicature Acts, pleading under the Judicature Act is intended to combine the advantages of the two systems; it being provided by R.S.C. 1883, Ord. XIX., Rule 4, that 'every pleading shall contain, and contain only, a statement in a summary form of the material facts on which the party pleading relies; but not the evidence by which they are to be proved,' and 'shall, when necessary, be divided into paragraphs numbered consecutively.' Consult Bullen and Leake, or Odgers on Pleading.

A pleading has to be read as a whole to ascertain its true import. It is not permissible to cull out a sentence or a passage and to read it out of the context, in isolation. Although it is the substance and not merely the form that has to be looked into, the pleading has to be construed as it stands without addition or subtraction of words, or change of its apparent grammatical sense. The intention of the party concerned is to be gathered, primarily, from the tenor and terms of his pleading taken as a whole, Shri Udhav Singh v. Madhav Rao Scindia, AIR 1976 SC 744 (750): (1977) 1 SCC 511: (1976) 2 SCR 246. [Civil P.C. (5 of 1908) 66 R. 2]