Drafting Article 136 SLPs that the Court Reads
The Supreme Court hears thousands of Special Leave Petitions each year. Most are dismissed in limine — the Court reading the synopsis, perhaps the questions of law, and forming a view on grant or dismissal within minutes. The drafting of the SLP is therefore the work of the petition.
The structure
An Article 136 Special Leave Petition is filed under the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, in the form prescribed in Order XXII. The structure is uniform: index, certificate, synopsis and list of dates, questions of law, the petition itself (with grounds, prayer, paragraph-wise discussion of facts), and annexures with the impugned order at the start.
Each component does specific work. Form deviations result in defective filings; substance deviations result in in-limine dismissal.
The synopsis
The synopsis is the document the bench reads first. It runs typically to a single page — sometimes two — and must convey, in compressed form, the entirety of the matter: the dispute, the procedural history, the impugned order, the principal questions, and the relief sought.
A poorly-drafted synopsis costs the SLP. If the synopsis does not surface the legal question that justifies Supreme Court intervention, the petition will be dismissed at first reading regardless of the merit of the underlying matter.
The questions of law
The questions of law must be precisely framed. They must be questions on which the High Court's reasoning is challenged, not questions of fact dressed as legal questions. They must be questions whose resolution is dispositive of the matter, not collateral questions on which the petitioner is also dissatisfied.
Three to five questions is the working number. Petitions with twelve or fifteen questions of law signal an inability to identify the central issue and will be received accordingly.
The grounds
The grounds of the petition are numbered, with each ground addressing a specific paragraph of the impugned judgment. Vague grounds — "the High Court erred in fact and law" — do no work; specific grounds — "the High Court erred in paragraph 24 by misapplying the test laid down in [authority] and ignoring the documentary record at [page reference]" — frame the bench's review.
The grounds must be ordered by importance. The most consequential ground first, with the supporting argument; lesser grounds in declining order. The bench may stop reading at any point; the strongest argument must be in the first half.
The prayer
The prayer must be aligned with the relief the Supreme Court can grant under Article 136. A prayer for outright reversal of the High Court order, where the matter is fact-intensive, is unrealistic; the working prayer is leave, followed by setting aside or modification of the impugned order on the questions framed.
Where stay or interim protection is sought, the application for stay accompanies the SLP and engages with the conditions of stay (prima facie case, balance of convenience, irreparable injury) under Article 142 jurisprudence.
Working observations
Three observations from current practice. First: the synopsis must be drafted last, after the petition is fully complete — and it must be re-drafted if it cannot persuade an unfamiliar reader of the SLP's merit in a single page.
Second: the questions of law must be framed in a manner that engages with the Supreme Court's current docket priorities. The Court is particularly receptive to matters involving constitutional questions, statutory-interpretation questions of recurring application, and matters where High Court positions are inconsistent and require resolution.
Third: the petition must respect the limitation under Order XXII Rule 5 — ninety days from receipt of the impugned order. Delay condonation under Section 5 of the Limitation Act is available but is granted on stricter standards in Supreme Court matters than in High Court matters. The drafting must be scheduled to permit timely filing.
The SLP is read by a bench that has read thirty other SLPs that morning. The drafting must do its work in the time the bench gives it — and that time is short.