GNLU Gandhinagar trumped NUJS Kolkata to win the ninth edition of India’s oldest tax moot - the Nani Palkhivala Memorial - on Saturday.
The Tier 4 win, on GLC Mumbai turf, earned GNLU 15 points picking it up eight places in the standings in the MPL 4, sponsored by Herbert Smith. The college now sits at number six, three places below the now third-ranking NUJS.
Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) Sonipat won the award for best memorial, while HNLU Raipur’s Shobhit Koshta picked up the best researcher prize. Jamia Milia Islamia Delhi’s Shafaq was declared the best speaker. Jamia is now in second place of the MPL, ahead of NUJS Kolkata and JGLS.
Prateek Kumar, Aditi Tambi and Ishita Farsaiya from the winning GNLU team also bagged an internship with Nishith Desai Associates.
Researcher Farsaiya was all praises for GLC’s “superb” hosting of the event in terms of accommodation, mooting venue and the food served. “Whether we win or lose, the way these people have treated us, we’ve had one hell of a time,” she said.
She also noted: “There’s this general belief that people from national law schools do better than most because of their argument style; the concept was shattered. The bench actually wanted good arguments. If you’re just a sharp speaker it won’t matter, [it’ll just reflect in your marks]. They wanted a sound legal argument.”
Second-placed NUJS was represented by Dhvani Shah, Puneeth Ganapathy and Nihal Joseph.
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The other awards distributed include the prize for the second best speaker for which ULC Bangalore’s A Mahesh Chowdhary and Bangalore Institute of Legal studies’ speaker Pranjit Bhattacharya were tied, and the Nani Palkhivala Memorial Research Paper Competition from last year’s edition of the moot which was taken away by RGNUL Patiala’s Arnab Naskar and Shubhangi Gupta.
26 teams including previous MPL seasons’ goliaths and recent Manfred Lachs world rounds winners NLSIU Bangalore participated in the competition. NLSIU had clinched victory at the moot last year.
We are still evaluating suitability of the Amity Noida moot, as well as confirming results for the Surana Trial North-East rounds.
International law firm Herbert Smith is sponsoring the Mooting Premier League (MPL) and will contribute a prize pool of Rs 60,000 for the top three winning colleges.
Mooting Premier League 4 season standings
| Pos | Law school | T1 | T2 | T3 | T4 | T5 | Org | W | R/u | S/F | B S | B M/R | HM | Pts | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [[NLSIU Bangalore]] | 100 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 110 | [Surana Trial Adv - South] (gold); [Manfred Lachs Space Moot World Rounds] (gold, best memo, best orator) | |||||||
| 2 | [[Jindal Global Law School]] | 15 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 33 | [Nani Palkhivala] (Best Memorial)][Henry Dunant] (best researcher, semis); [Surana Trial Adv - North] (gold); | ||||||
| 3 | [[Faculty of Law, Jamia Milia Islamia University]] | 10 | 8 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 28 | [Nani Palkhivala (Best speaker)][Henry Dunant (Best memo), [Surana Trial adv-North (Silver, best speaker)] | ||||||
| 4 | [[NUJS Kolkata]] | 8 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 28 | [Nani Palkhivala (runners up)][BR Sawhney (Best peaker)][SLCU Moot (Gold, Best speaker)] | ||||||||
| 5 | [[NLU Delhi]] | 20 | 1 | 1 | 21 | [Henry Dunant] (gold); [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (organiser); | |||||||||
| 6 | [[GNLU Gandhinagar]] | 15 | 5 | 1 | 20 | [Nani Palkhivala] (best team); [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (Best speaker) | |||||||||
| 7 | [[RMLNLU Lucknow]] | 20 | 1 | 2 | 20 | [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (gold, best researcher); [Surana Trial Adv - North] (best memo); | |||||||||
| 8 | [[GLC Mumbai]] | 10 | 8 | 1 | 18 | Henry Dunant (Best speaker) | |||||||||
| 9 | [[NLU Jodhpur]] | 10 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 16 | [Henry Dunant] (silver); [Surana Trial Adv - North] (semis); [B.R Sawhney Moot] (semis) ; | ||||||||
| 10 | [[RGNUL Patiala]] | 4 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 12 | [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (semis); B. R Sawhney Moot (runners up), Nani Palkhivala (semis) | ||||||||
| 11 | [[Department of Law, North-Eastern Hill University]] | 10 | 1 | 10 | [Henry Dunant] (best speaker); | ||||||||||
| 12 | KIIT School of Law | 10 | 1 | 10 | [B.R Sawhney Moot] (Winners) ; | ||||||||||
| 13 | HNLU Raipur | 8 | 8 | Nani Palkhivala (Best Researcher) | |||||||||||
| 14 | [[CUSAT Kochi|School of Legal Studies, CUSAT Kochi]] | 8 | 1 | 1 | 8 | [Surana Trial Adv - South] (best memo, semis); | |||||||||
| 15 | [[SVKM’s Pravin Gandhi College of Law]] | 8 | 1 | 1 | 8 | [SLCU Moot] (best memo, semis); | |||||||||
| 16 | [[Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad|Nirma University]] | 5 | 1 | 5 | [Henry Dunant] (semis); | ||||||||||
| 17 | [[ILS Pune]] | 5 | 1 | 5 | [SLCU Moot] (silver); | ||||||||||
| 18 | [[NUALS Kochi]] | 5 | 1 | 5 | [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (silver); | ||||||||||
| 19 | [[ULC Bangalore]] | 5 | 1 | 5 | [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (best memo); | ||||||||||
| 20 | [[New Law College, Bharti Vidayapeeth University, Pune]] | 5 | 1 | 5 | [Surana Trial Adv - South] (best speaker); | ||||||||||
| 21 | NLU Orissa | 5 | 1 | 5 | [B.R Sawhney Moot] (Best Memorial) ; | ||||||||||
| 22 | NLIU Bhopal | 4 | 4 | Nani Palkhivala (semis) | |||||||||||
| 23 | [[Army Institute of Law, Mohali]] | 3 | 1 | 3 | [Surana Trial Adv - North] (semis); | ||||||||||
| 24 | [[Faculty of Law, IFHE Hyderabad]] | 3 | 1 | 3 | [SLCU Moot] (semis); | ||||||||||
| 25 | [[Campus Law Centre. Delhi]] | 3 | 1 | 3 | [B.R Sawhnhey Moot] (semis); | ||||||||||
| 26 | [[School of Law, Sastra University, Thanjavur]] | 3 | 1 | 3 | [Surana Trial Adv - South] (semis); | ||||||||||
| 27 | [[Christ Law College Bangalore|School of Law, Christ University, Bangalore]] | 1 | 1 | [SLCU Moot] (organiser); | |||||||||||
| 28 | Nalsar Hyderabad | 1 | 1 | [B.R Sawhney Moot] (organisers) |
For more information please refer to the [[MPL 3 rulebook]].
Comments
We'll have to evaluate Amity Noida's suitability since it is new, NLS, NLIU and NLU-J don't seem to have participated, for example. We'll also have to try and confirm the standards. It is definitely a strong candidate for inclusion next year, although possibly also for this time.
Surana Trial North-East, I agree with you, and we are considering ditching the Surana trial regional selection rounds completely, since they've been divided into 3 this year, meaning each win should count for less. Unfortunately, we have already allotted points for Surana North, so we're in a bit of a pickle.
In the interest of fairness, we may have to give points to Surana North East this time, begrudgingly. We're still looking into and will try to come up with a good solution.
Do let us know feedback on those choices below (but please don't keep repeating the same Amity Noida soundbites).
Best wishes,
Kian
Since one of the criteria for the inclusion of new moots is the participation from top teams (along with the quality etc...), if I may please point your attention to the 4th Saquib Rizvi National Moot which took place a few weeks all the top teams had participated and I strongly believe that it deserves a place in the MPL4. please consider it and all the participants agree that it was organised and conducted well
The best speakers are able to display both - its not like some lawschools rely on style alone. The fact is that style is crucial in mooting (technical knowledge is assumed for finalist teams).
At the Jessup, there are teams from non English speaking countries that do fairly well. There English may be heavily accented and not have the same "flair" as Indian National Law School students, but they still win. So there is no such "myth" to be shattered - perhaps the myth is for people who have never mooted and for giving eye catching headlines.
Being new should not be the criteria, it has been 2 years for us to conduct the moot. Also, Corp Law moot was there in MPL from season 1, so that should not be the criteria to judge the moot.
Just one or two big names were missing and the colleges doing well this year in MPL, all were there in the moot. We had Sr. Advs. like Pinky Anand judging the prelims.
For Surana North East, we won't comment. Its upto you.
so now total is 16 4(nani tax moot) + 4(NLU D Corp) + 8 ( BR Sawhny runners up) not 12
See the full rules here:
http://www.legallyindia.com/wiki/MPL_3_rulebook
He'll be quenching the legal fraternity's thirst;
I wish him the best;
It looks like he really needs a rest;
To Legally India, Indian law's first.
A limerick in honour of Kian & co. Just a fan impressed by his manner of catering to all readers, law students or Kishen, whoever he is, despite what seems like unrelenting criticism. I might not currently be at my soberest best but hats off and may you have a thousand sons.
And cheers, have a great evening!
See the full rules here:
http://www.legallyindia.com/wiki/MPL_3_rulebook[/quote]
About the 1000 sons thing, Kian, you should get started right away. It's not impossible. See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9611894/96-year-old-Indian-is-worlds-oldest-father.html
I think there's only a minor typo in the text. The points are all still in order.
Completely agree. They have the budget, the warmth and the thoughtfulness. I went for both moots and they were fab hosts. 100 cheers to GLC!
I see ICC Mediation on MPL4, how does a Mediation even remotely become a moot ?
NLIU might have had exams, etc. coz they usually do participate at Amity Moots.
We'd like to issue a clarification.
GNLU’s researcher Ishita Farsaiya's quote has been amended to replace “NLS [Bangalore]” with “national law schools”, after a miscommunication on this point.
The point which Farsaiya was making was that non-national law schools often attribute national law university mooting wins to the students’ brilliant oration, but this competition shattered her *own* belief that a great speaking-style without good argument-content can get one very far in moots.
We regret any misunderstanding or offence caused.
Best wishes,
Kian
Amity should be there in MPL4.