School of Law, KIIT (Deemed to be University) proudly presents the 6th edition of the National Moot Court Competition, 2018 which will commence in a short while. In the six years from its inception, the KLS Moot Court has come a long way to become one of the most prestigious Moot Court Competitions in the country dealing with various fields of law including Corporate Law, Competition Law, Commercial Arbitration etc.
In this edition, the Moot problem revolves around a dispute relating to an Arbitration clause in an agreement.
This is a 3-day long event, which will end on 30th of September with the Winning team being awarded the coveted Trophy and the cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000/-.
28th September 2018 (Day 1)
11:00 Registration of teams and inauguration ceremony have been completed. The inaugural speech was delivered by Prof. (Dr.) N. L. Mitra, Former Chancellor KIIT (Deemed to be University), Former Vice Chancellor, NLSIU, Banglore and NLU, Jodhpur.
Next up, the draw of lots and exchange of memorials.
12:00 Draw of lots has begun which will decide the fixtures for the preliminary rounds.
12:40 Exchange of memorials has concluded. Teams, now, are preparing for their preliminary rounds.
The first preliminary round will begin today at 15:30.
15:00 The esteemed Judges have arrived and are being briefed about the rules of the Competition which will begin in a short while.
15:30 Round A of the first prelims has begun. Teams on the appellant side have started their oral arguments.
17:30 Round B of the first prelims has begun with more enthusiasm and excitement for the teams.
Day 1 wrapped up with the participants being tested and grilled upon various facets of the issue, the legal standpoint and the facts of the problem. Some of the judges appreciated the teams for making some sublime oral submissions and answering the issues in accordance with how the law stands at this juncture and where it needs amendments to cover up the loopholes. Signing off for today. Prelims Round 2 and Quarter-Final Rounds shall be taking place tomorrow.
29th September 2018 (Day 2)
The judges have arrived. Teams are present in the courtroom with their memorial and compendium eager to present their arguments for another day and put in their best of efforts to break through the quarterfinal which is scheduled to start in the evening.
09:15 Round A of the second prelims has begun.
10:50 Prelims II Round B has started in some of the courtrooms.
11:15 Round B is underway in all the courtrooms.
12:15 Some intense discussions and grilling regard the statement of jurisdiction is going on in Courtroom No. 7. Statement of jurisdiction is one of the important facets of this moot proposition where the question being disputed involves around the right of the civil court’s jurisdiction and why parties are willing to refer the same to arbitration.
14:30 The Prelims are over and the participants are eagerly waiting for the results which will be announced post lunch at 1530hrs. Soon after drawing of lots and memorial exchange, the quarterfinals will take place.
16:00 Quarter Final rounds has begun!
18:50 Quarter Finals gets over in all the four courtrooms. Participants head towards the Seminar Hall, eagerly waiting for the results.
19:30 Results released! The semi qualifiers are elated with the results! One more day, two more rounds to go!
End of Day 2!! Along with the participants, the organizers are also bit exhausted; yet with the remaining energy, another day to go!!!
30th September 2018 (Day 3)
09:30 And we finally arrive to the last day of the event! The participants are waiting in the court hall. The judges are yet to arrive!
10:30 Semi-Final round has commenced. The teams after enduring much questing and grilling have reached this leg of the event to endure some more of that.
12:15 Semi-Finals gets over, with the participants eagerly waiting for the results for the final.
13:00 The two teams qualifying for the finals heads towards the library for the final preparation for which they have an hour or so.
15:00 The judges for the final round have arrived. The panel herein as follows:
1. Hon’ble Justice Sanjib Banerji, Calcutta High Court
2. Surya Prasad Misra, Advocate General, Odisha High Court
3. Somasekhar Sundaresan, Counsel, Hon’ble Supreme Court of India & Hon’ble Bombay High Court
4. Siddharth Dutta, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., Kolkata
5. Prof. (Dr.) Indrajit Dubey, Professor RGSOIPL, IIT Kharagpur.
15:30 The teams have arrived. And here we begin with the final round!!
15:40 The final round has finally begun. The oral submissions have started.
16:00 The participants are putting forth their knowledge persuasively in the oral submissions. The Hon’ble Judges, though, don’t seem to be in any hurry to accept the team’s contentions so easily.
16:30 Appellant side concludes their submissions.
16:48 Speaker 1 from the Respondent side is being questioned by Justice Banerji on the issue of maintainability.
16:56 Questions on the legal facets are being put forth to the teams.
17:20 Speaker 2 for the Respondent has started to sum up their arguments. This is the beginning of the end to this year’s KLS Moot Court Competition.
17:30 The teams are now summing up with their rebuttals, after which the oral rounds would come to an official end.
17:40 The rebuttals have now ended. Both the teams now will be waiting for the results with their nails between their teeth.
17:45 The final round of the 6th KLS Moot Court Competition has ended. The Hon’ble Judges have been taken off the dais after being duly felicitated by the Director, School of Law, KIIT (Deemed to be) University.
18:10 After a couple of ceremonial speeches from the Director, School of Law, KIIT (Deemed to be) University and the Registrar, KIIT (Deemed to be) University, the results will be declared.
18:45 Results announced! The trophy for the best team, i.e., the winner of the 6th edition of the KLS Moot Court Competition goes to the team that maintained their calm even under the constant and fiery questioning of the Hon’ble Judges, the team that portrayed the best demeanor even when most stressed, i.e., School of Law, Shashtra (Deemed to be) University, Tamil Nadu. It must be said that the team deserved to win.
The 1st Runner-up trophy goes to Rizvi College of Law, Mumbai, who were also not very far behind in talent or knowledge and showcased all the virtues of a winning team. But there could have been only one winner and today that team was School of Law, Shashtra (Deemed to be) University.
In the end, everyone that helped in making this event as grand as it came out to be, deserve to be congratulated. Special Thanks to SCC Online and EBC for helping out with the logistics, awards, and everything which made this event grand. It also goes without saying that all the teams that participated were exemplary in one sense or the other. All the Hon’ble judges that graced this event with their presence cannot be thanked enough in mere words.
Signing off!
