10-101.Action commenced by plaintiff.

Habeas corpus has old roots, and its case captions once reflected them: many jurisdictions styled the action as "People ex rel." or "People on the relation of" the confined person, treating the State as the nominal party bringing suit on the prisoner's behalf. Section 10-101 drops that convention for Illinois practice. In every proceeding commenced under Article X, the person seeking relief must be named as plaintiff, full stop.

The change is one of form, not substance. It doesn't expand or narrow who can seek habeas relief, and it doesn't touch any of the grounds or procedures the rest of Article X sets out. What it does is put the confined person's own name at the front of the case, rather than folding that person into a State-styled caption.

Because this rule applies to "all proceedings commenced under Article X," it governs every filing that follows in this Article, from the initial application described in Section 10-103 through any later amended pleading.