This year has been exception for all of us. But in these unprecedented and uncertain times, the words of Martin Luther King Jr. come to mind. He said and I quote,
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
With its motto “Aspire and Achieve”, Army Institute of Law is an amalgamation of excellence, fortitude and balance that remains unparalleled in the legal fraternity. The unique strength of our community lies in its diversity and steadfastness. We have always believed that mooting affords participants the opportunity to decipher substantive legal problems while giving them an insight on practical and theoretical aspects of law, which cannot be tutored in the confines of a classroom. With this objective in mind, the 1stAIL National Moot Court Competition ‘Checkmate’ was held in the year 2011 and has been an annual affair ever since.
With the obvious obstacles emanating from the break-out of this pandemic, Army Institute of Law rose to the occasion and swiftly shifted its National Moot Court Competition to a virtual set-up. We received an overwhelming response to the Moot Proposition released by us, with 55 teams registering for the competition, which forced us to increase the team cap from 32 teams and eventually 36 teams from across the country made it into the competition.
‘Checkmate’ is known for it’s avant-garde and unique moot propositions and this year the proposition was based on multiple facets of criminal law, law of evidence and constitutional law. The year’s moot problem was conceived to create awareness about the juxtaposition of criminal jurisprudence with the ever-emerging technological developments of our time, that not only revolutionises legal education but also find application in actual practice.
The Preliminary Rounds of the competition were conducted via video submissions made by the teams, out of which only the top 8 teams made it to the Quarter Finals followed by semi-finals that were held on the 30th of October, 2020. These rounds were judged by esteemed dignitaries from the legal fraternity, who declared the top two teams which battled in the court rooms today for the title of the ‘Winner’ of Checkmate 2020.
The final round was adjudged by our esteemed panel consisting of Hon’ble Mr Justice Suvir Sehgal, Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr. V.K Gupta, Former District and Sessions Judge, Himachal Pradesh and Dr. K.P Singh, Former Director General of Police, Haryana.
Following prizes were distributed at the end of the competition:
- Best Memorial – TC- 01 (Llyod Law College, Noida)
- 2nd Best Speaker – TC- 26 – Vinay Agarwal (ICFAI Dehraduna)
- Best Speaker – TC- 34 Rameshwar Manav (NLIU, Bhopal)
- Best pre-recorded videos – TC-34 (NLIU, Bhopal)
- Runner’ Up – TC-07 Symbiosis Law School, Noida
- Best Team and Winner of Checkmate – TC- 13 Advocate Balasaheb Apte College of Law, Mumbai
