Bail application format
The parts of a bail application, the categories of grounds that appear in them, the documents annexed — and the CrPC and BNSS section numbers side by side, with the changeover date.
Not a folder of scanned PDFs. A library of 3,500+ Indian formats across 61 categories, with the parts each document must carry, the annexures it travels with, and a drafting flow that fills in your matter's particulars before you ever open a blank page.
A format is the skeleton of a filing: the cause title, the parts the court expects in order, the verification, and the annexures. Lawgger carries 3,500+ Indian formats across 61 categories, and drafts from them through an intake form so the finished paper already carries your matter's particulars.
Most drafting pages on the Indian web hand you a scan and leave. These three explain what each part of the document is doing, which is the thing a junior actually needs the first ten times.
The parts of a bail application, the categories of grounds that appear in them, the documents annexed — and the CrPC and BNSS section numbers side by side, with the changeover date.
Clause by clause: what each line of a vakalatnama actually authorises an advocate to do, who signs it, what accompanies it, and how the requirement varies between courts.
What a notice must say to be worth sending, why proof of dispatch is the substance rather than an afterthought, the cheque-dishonour clock, and how a para-wise reply is built.
The categories below are the working shape of an Indian litigation practice. Each one holds dozens of formats in the app; the descriptions here are what that category is for, so you can tell whether the paper you need lives in it.
Bail and anticipatory bail applications, private complaints, applications for discharge, revision and quashing petitions, surety and bond papers, applications for return of seized property.
Plaints, written statements, replications, applications for temporary injunction and attachment before judgment, execution petitions, applications for amendment of pleadings.
Writ petitions and the paper that travels with them — synopsis, list of dates, stay applications, counter-affidavits, rejoinders, and applications for early hearing.
Petitions for divorce, judicial separation and restitution, mutual-consent petitions and settlement terms, maintenance applications, custody and guardianship petitions.
Complaints before the district, state and national commissions, affidavit of evidence, written version for the opposite party, applications for condonation of delay.
Suits under the commercial courts framework, pre-institution mediation papers, statements of truth, summary suit applications, recovery and account-stated pleadings.
Notice invoking arbitration, applications for interim measures, applications for appointment of an arbitrator, statement of claim and statement of defence, objections to an award.
Original applications and replies before administrative tribunals, representations, applications for stay of transfer or suspension, rejoinders, applications for early listing.
Replies to show-cause notices, appeals and stay applications before appellate authorities and tribunals, applications for rectification, and correspondence with the department.
Sale deeds and agreements to sell, gift, lease and mortgage deeds, partition and relinquishment deeds, general and special powers of attorney, and their schedules.
Demand notices, cheque-dishonour notices, notices to quit and to terminate, statutory notices to government departments, and para-wise replies to notices received.
Affidavits in support of applications, affidavits of evidence, verification affidavits, affidavits of service, and affidavits of non-filing or of no earlier application.
The interlocutory paper that keeps a matter moving: condonation of delay, exemption from filing certified copies, impleadment, amendment, restoration, early hearing.
Memoranda of appeal and grounds, applications for condonation and for stay of the decree or order, revision and review petitions, and the components of an appeal paper book.
The remaining categories — company and insolvency work, labour and industrial matters, motor accident claims, property and tenancy, banking and recovery, intellectual property, education and admission matters, and the rest — sit in the same library inside the app. We publish written guides here only where we have something specific to say, because a page that is a spun copy of its neighbour helps nobody.
A format on its own is still a blank form. Six steps take it to a document with your matter's particulars in it.
Search the category or describe the document in one line — a bail application before the Sessions Court, a reply to a notice under section 138, a lease deed for commercial premises. The nearest format in the library is opened.
Instead of a blank page, you get the questions the document needs answered: who the parties are, which court, the dates, the amounts, what is being asked for. Fields you leave empty stay marked, not invented.
The cause title, the description of parties, the numbered facts and the prayer come back already carrying what you entered — in the register the court reads, in any of ten Indian languages.
Rewrite the grounds, tighten a paragraph, add a proposition and its authority. Authorities pulled in are pin-cited to the page and carry a good-law verdict, so nothing overruled walks into the draft unnoticed.
OCR the scanned annexures so they are searchable, place the stamps, compress a paper book down to a filing size limit, convert between Word and PDF without the formatting collapsing.
The executed copy goes into a private chamber vault with the matter, so the next junior who drafts the same thing starts from your version rather than from a stranger's.
The whole flow is described in more detail on the drafting page, and the matter, task and billing side of it on practice management.
Almost every filing in an Indian court is built from the same parts in the same order. Learn the parts once and no format is unfamiliar again.
| Part | What goes in it, and why it matters |
|---|---|
| Cause title | The court, the case number and year where one exists, and the parties in the order the record carries them. A wrong cause title is caught at the filing counter, long before a judge reads a word of your grounds. |
| Description of parties | Full names, parentage or spouse's name where the rules require it, ages, occupations and addresses for service. This is the block notice is issued on, so an incomplete address is a lost date. |
| Jurisdiction paragraph | The facts that put the matter before this court and no other: where the cause of action arose, where the property lies, where the respondent resides, and the value of the subject matter. It is a short paragraph that decides whether the rest survives. |
| Facts, in numbered paragraphs | One fact to a paragraph, in date order, each stated so the other side can answer it para-wise. Facts belong here; argument does not. Documents relied on are referred to by their annexure mark as they appear. |
| Grounds | The legal propositions relied on, lettered or numbered, each self-contained. Keeping them out of the facts is what lets a court read the case in five minutes, and lets the other side answer it honestly. |
| Prayer | Exactly what the court is asked to do, written in the words of the order you want passed, with any interim prayer stated separately. A prayer that is vaguer than the relief you need cannot be cured in argument. |
| Verification | The signed statement of which paragraphs are true to the maker's knowledge and which to information believed to be true. Rules differ, but a pleading filed without proper verification is a defective pleading. |
| Affidavit in support | Where the rules require an application or petition to be supported by affidavit, it is sworn, identified and attested as that court directs, and it must match the pleading it supports. |
| List of annexures | An index of the documents filed, with annexure marks that match every reference in the body. Half the defects raised at a filing counter are a mark in the body that has no document behind it. |
| Court fee and stamp note | The fee payable on the relief claimed, the stamp affixed, and where the receipt or challan is placed. The amount and the manner are governed by the fee law and rules of the state you are filing in. |
| Advocate's particulars | Signature, enrolment number, address for service, and the vakalatnama that puts the advocate on record. Without the vakalatnama the rest of the paper is filed by someone the court does not yet recognise. |
Two of these parts have pages of their own: the vakalatnama, because nobody explains what its clauses authorise, and the legal notice, because the reply is harder to draft than the notice. If a term in the table is unfamiliar, the glossary of Indian legal terms defines it plainly.
On 1 July 2024 the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replaced the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Evidence Act. The provisions did not disappear; they were renumbered.
That renumbering quietly broke the format libraries circulating as PDFs and forwarded files. A bail application saved in 2021 says section 439 of the CrPC. For an offence registered after the commencement it should say section 483 of the BNSS. Neither number is wrong in the abstract — which one is right depends on when the matter began, because the repeal and savings provision in the new Sanhita preserves proceedings already pending under the old Code.
So a criminal format has to carry a date, not just a number. Our criminal guides print both numberings side by side and say which applies when. Start with the bail application format with CrPC and BNSS sections, and use the IPC to BNS section mapping when you need to move an offence description across.
The same discipline applies to the authorities you cite in the grounds. A judgment on the old provision is often still good law on the new one, and sometimes it is not — which is what the good-law check is for.
These are drafting formats and drafting notes, published for advocates. They describe how a document is put together in Indian practice. They are not legal advice, they are not an opinion on anybody's matter, and reading them creates no advocate-client relationship.
A qualified advocate must settle and sign any document before it is sent or filed. The facts of a matter, the rules of the court it goes to, the limitation position and the relief available all change what the paper should say. No format survives contact with a real file unedited.
Lawgger is a software company, not a law firm. We do not practise law, we do not take briefs, we do not appear, and we do not refer work. Nothing on this site solicits or advertises legal services — the Bar Council of India rules govern that, and they govern advocates, not software. What we advertise is software, sold to advocates.
Everything the platform quotes comes from original judgments in real cases, pin-cited to the page, so a draft can be checked against the source rather than taken on faith. Where an authority has been overruled, it is marked. On what that means for AI drafting generally, see why AI invents citations, and what to do about it.
Formats circulate through chamber files, bar association collections, published drafting manuals and the practice of the court you file in. Lawgger carries 3,500+ Indian formats across 61 categories inside the app, covering criminal, civil, writ, matrimonial, consumer, commercial, arbitration, service, tax and conveyancing work, and drafts from them through an intake form so the finished paper already carries your matter's particulars.
The guides on this site are free to read and explain what each part of a document contains. Drafting from the full library is part of Lawgger, which has a 14-day free trial with no card and paid access at Rs 1,999 a month or Rs 19,999 a year with a GST invoice. See pricing.
Yes. Drafts produced in the app can be taken out as a Word file or a PDF, and the doc tools convert between the two, run OCR on scanned annexures, compress oversized files for e-filing and place stamps. The point is that you export a draft carrying your matter's particulars, not an empty form you retype.
Yes. The substance of a pleading travels, but the form does not. Cause titles, paper book requirements, the number of copies, annexure marking, the affidavit that must accompany an application and the court fee all follow the rules of the court you are filing in. Always settle a draft against the rules and practice of that court.
3,500 and more Indian formats, organised across 61 categories. They are not a flat pile of files: each one is wired to an intake form, so choosing a format produces the questions the document needs answered, and the answers come back as a finished draft you then edit section by section.
Criminal drafting now has to name the right code. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita came into force on 1 July 2024 and renumbered the provisions advocates cite every day, while the repeal and savings provision preserves proceedings already pending under the CrPC. Our criminal guides show both numberings side by side so the right one can be chosen for the date — see the bail application format.
Yes. Most chambers already have drafts they trust and will not give up. Those can be kept in a private chamber vault alongside the library and used as the starting point for new work. Vault content sits in a private per-chamber data container, is encrypted at rest, and is never used as AI training data. See security and data handling.
3,500+ formats, an intake form that asks the right questions, and a draft that comes back with your matter's particulars already in it. Fourteen days free, no card.