PETITION is a document containing a prayer from the person present ing it—called " the petitioner "—that the Court to which it is presented will grant sonic right or redress some wrong. Many legal proceedings are commenced by the presentation of a petition instead of by a writ. Of such may be mentioned divorce, bankruptcy, winding-up, and lunacy proceedings. Ira Bankruptcy, for example, if a debtor commits an ACT OF BANK RUPTCY (q.v.), the Court, on a petition being presented either by a creditor or by the debtor, has power to make a receiving order for the protection of the estate. A creditor is not entitled to present a petition against a debtor unless—(a) The debt owing by the debtor to the petitioning creditor, or, if two or more creditors join in the petition, the aggregate amount of debts owing to the several petitioning creditors, amounts to 1'50; and (b) the debt. is a liquidated sum, payable either immediately or at some certain future time ; and (e) the act of bankruptcy on which the petition is grounded has occurred within three months before the presentation of the petition ; and (d) the debtor is domiciled in England, or, within a year before the date of the pre sentation of the petition, has ordinarily resided or had a dwelling-house or place of business in England. A secured creditor must, in his petition, either state that he is willing to give up his security for the benefit of the creditors in the event of the debtor being adjudged bankrupt, or give an estimate of the value of his security. In the latter case he may be admitted as a petitioning creditor to the extent of the balance of the debt due to him, after deducting the value so estimated, in the same manner as if he were unsecured. A creditor's petition must be verified by affidavit of the creditor, or of some person on his behalf having knowledge of the facts ; it must be served on the debtor in the prescribed manner. At the hearing the Court requires proof of the debt, of the service, and of the act of bank ruptcy. It has been decided, In re X. Y. ex park Hues, that on the hearing of a petition the petitioning creditor is entitled to production of the debtor's books in order to prove the allegations in the petition. If more than one act of bankruptcy are alleged it may be sufficient to prove only one. The Court will dismiss the petition if these proofs are not satisfactory ; and so also will it if satisfied that the debtor is able to pay his debts, or that for some other sufficient cause no order ought to be made. When the act of
bankruptcy relied on is non-compliance with a bankruptcy notice, the Court has power to stay.or dismiss the petition on the ground that an appeal is pending from the judgment. And on the hearing of the petition the debtor may have an opportunity to contest the creditor's claim—an opportunity afforded by section 7 (5) of the Bankruptcy Act, 1883. By this section, " where the debtor appears on the petition and denies that he is indebted to the petitioner, or that he is indebted to such an amount as would justify the petitioner in presenting a petition against him, the Court, on such security (if any) being given fIS the Court may require for payment to the petitioner of any debt which may be established against him in due course of law, and of the costs of establishing the debt, may instead of dismissine. the petition stay all proceedings on the petition for such time as may bre required for trial of the question relating to the debt." Where proceedings are stayed, the Court may, if by reason of the delay caused by the stay of proceedings or for any other cause it thinks just, make a receiving order on the petition of some other creditor. Thereupon it will dismiss, on such terms as it thinks just, the petition in which the proceedings have been stayed. A creditor, after he has once presented his petition, cannot N% ithdraw it without the leave of the Court ; nor can even a debtor withdraw his own petition except with leave. The question of the right of a debtor to present a petition on his own behalf has been fully discussed in Ex parte Painter ; In re Painter, from which case it appears that it cannot be rightly said that a receiving order ought not to be made on a debtor's petition merely because the petition was presented for a purpose foreign to the bankruptcy laws, nor can the receiving order be annulled on those grounds. Certainly it cannot be annulled because the debtor has no assets; nor because, for instance, he is possev.ed of an inalienable pension, nor because, having no assets and being in possession of such a pension, he has presented the petition for the express purpose of avoiding a committal under the Debtors Act to compel him to pay the debt out of his pension. See BANKRUPPCY.