W-08Write for FPR · style guide
How to set out, write and cite a piece.
A piece that follows this guide needs fewer rounds of revision. Each catalogue entry also has a writer’s kit, a Word file with the outline for its form, which you can download from the entry’s page. Who may write what is on the Write page.
G-01The shape of a piece
- Thesis. One sentence that states your point. It is set in large type at the top.
- Abstract. About a hundred words: the question, how you went about it, what you conclude.
- Numbered sections. Head each one with a roman numeral and a short title, such as “I. The rule”. Use one level of sub-heading below that, and no more.
- A last section that says what is unsettled or what should follow. Do not end by repeating the abstract.
The outline for each form is in its writer’s kit. A Doctrine opens with the rule; a Lineage runs in order of date; a Fault Line states both answers before it argues for one.
G-02Writing
- State the law first. Say what the rule is, then where it came from.
- Keep paragraphs short and give each one a single point. Readers cite them by number.
- Use plain words. Write “the court held”, not “it was held by the Hon’ble Court”. Leave out “it is submitted that”.
- Say who decided. Name the court and, where it matters, the size of the bench and whether the view was the majority’s.
- Separate holding from remark. If a passage was not needed to decide the case, say so.
- Case names are in italics, in the text and in citations. After the first mention, a short name will do: Maneka Gandhi.
- Spelling follows Indian usage: judgment, licence (noun), defence, colour.
- Dates are written 12 March 2019. Numbers up to ten are spelt out, except in section and article numbers.
- Statutes that have been replaced. Give the old provision and the new one together the first time, as in “section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, now section 180 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023”.
Quotations
- Quote only what you need. A quotation is not a substitute for saying what the court decided.
- Copy it exactly, from the judgment itself. Mark anything you leave out with an ellipsis and anything you add with square brackets.
- Set a quotation of more than about forty words as a block of its own, without quotation marks.
G-03Citations
FPR follows the Bluebook. Put each citation in a footnote in your Word file; on the site it becomes a note in the margin beside the sentence it supports.
- Cite the primary source. The judgment, the statute, the rule. Cite a commentary only for the commentator’s own view.
- Give a pinpoint for every case: the paragraph you rely on, written ¶ 24. For older reports without paragraph numbers, give the page.
- Prefer SCC for the Supreme Court, then AIR, then SCC OnLine. Give one report, not several.
- Never cite a headnote, a case summary on a website, or a case you have not opened.
- One footnote for each proposition. If a sentence makes two claims, it needs two notes.
- Repeating a source. Use Id. for the note immediately before, and a short form with supra for an earlier one: Maneka Gandhi, supra note 3, ¶ 56.
How each kind of source is written
- Supreme Court, SCCManeka Gandhi v. Union of India, (1978) 1 SCC 248.
- Supreme Court, AIRA.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras, AIR 1950 SC 27.
- A case not yet in a printed reportAppellant v. Respondent, 2024 SCC OnLine SC 100.
- High CourtAppellant v. Respondent, 2019 SCC OnLine Del 100.
- With a pinpointAppellant v. Respondent, (2020) 3 SCC 100, ¶ 24.
- The ConstitutionINDIA CONST. art. 21.
- A statuteIndian Contract Act, 1872, § 73.
- Rules or regulationsName of the Rules, Year, r. 4(2).
- An English caseDonoghue v. Stevenson, [1932] AC 562 (HL).
- A bookH.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law 100 (2d ed. 1994).
- A journal articleAuthor Name, Title of the Article, 12 Journal Name 345, 350 (2021).
- A piece in FPRAuthor Name, Title of the Piece, (2027) 1 FPR 14, ¶ 12.
- A Law Commission reportLaw Commission of India, Report No. 100, Title of the Report ¶ 3.2 (Year).
- A source that exists only onlineAuthor or Body, Title, Publisher (12 March 2026), https://example.org/page.
Where a line uses “Appellant v. Respondent” or “Author Name”, it shows the pattern only, and the numbers in it are placeholders.
G-04Before you submit
Check every citation yourself.
Open it
Find each case and provision in the original. If you cannot find it, take it out.
Read the paragraph
Make sure the paragraph you cite says what your sentence says, and that it is the court’s holding.
Compare the words
Hold each quotation against the source. Check the year, the volume, the page and the court.
This matters most if you used an AI tool to find sources. A citation that a tool made up is treated as fabrication under the academic integrity policy, and the author answers for it.
G-05A worked model
The opening of a Doctrine entry, set as it would appear on the site.
Thesis
A procedure that takes away liberty must be fair, just and reasonable, and not merely one that a legislature has enacted.
Abstract
Article 21 allows life and liberty to be taken away according to procedure established by law. This entry asks what that procedure must be. It reads the two Supreme Court decisions that frame the answer, states the rule as it is applied now, and identifies what the courts have left open.
I. The rule
1A law that takes away a person’s life or liberty must do more than lay down a procedure. The procedure itself must be fair, just and reasonable. A court will strike down one that is arbitrary, even if Parliament enacted it with every formality.
2That is not what the text says on its face. Article 21 provides that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty “except according to procedure established by law”.INDIA CONST. art. 21. For nearly three decades the Supreme Court read those words to mean any procedure that a validly enacted law lays down.A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras, AIR 1950 SC 27. In 1978 it held that the procedure must also satisfy a test of fairness, and that a law depriving a person of liberty has to answer to Articles 14 and 19 as well.Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, (1978) 1 SCC 248.
3This entry states the rule as courts apply it today, traces the two decisions that frame it, and sets out what remains unsettled.
What the model does
- The first paragraph is the rule.A practitioner who reads only that paragraph should leave with the law. History comes second.
- One point to a paragraph.Paragraphs are numbered on the site and cited by number, so each should say one thing.
- The Constitution is cited to itself.Not to a textbook that quotes it. The same goes for statutes and judgments.
- The quotation is exact.It was compared with the text of Article 21, word for word, before it went in.
- Each proposition has its own citation.Three claims about the law, three notes. A reader can check each one separately.
- The last paragraph is a map.One sentence that tells the reader what the remaining sections do.
- What the sample leaves out.In your piece, every case citation ends with the paragraph it relies on, as ¶ 24. The sample shows the form of each citation only.