Procedure to Draft a Written Statement.

Procedure to Draft a Written Statement A defendant should within the specified time from the date of service of summons on him/her, present a written statement of his defence. When the defendant relies on several distinct grounds of defence or set off, founded upon separate and distinct facts, they should be stated in separate paragraphs (O.8, R.7 of CPC), and when a ground is applicable, not to the whole claim but only to a part of it, its statement should be prefaced by words showing distinctly that it is pleaded only to that part of the claim, thus: "As to the mesne profits claimed by the plaintiff, the defendant contends that, etc." or "As to the price of cloth said to have been purchased by the defendant, the defendant contends that, etc." A written statement should be drafted carefully and artistically. All the general rules of pleading should apply to a written statement. When it is intended to take several defences in the same written statement, the different kinds of defences should be separately written. It is convenient to adopt the following order for the several pleas: Denials – Denials to be specific Dilatory pleas Objections in point of Law Special defence (pleas in Confession and avoidance) Set off and counter - claim All admissions and denials of the facts alleged in the plaint should be recorded in the first part of the written statement and before any other pleas are written. Rule 3 of Order VIII of CPC requires that the defendant must deal specifically with each allegation effect of which he/she does not admit the truth. Rule 5 of the CPC provides that every allegation of the fact in the plaint, if not denied in the written statement, shall be taken to be admitted by the defendant. If a defendant wishes to add an affirmative statement of his own version to the denial of a plaint allegation, or to add anything in order to explain his admission or denial, it is better and more convenient to allege the additional facts along with the admissions or denial, than to reserve them until after the admissions or denials have been recorded. If there are some defences which are applicable to the whole case and others which apply only to a part of the claim, the former should preferably be pleaded before the latter.