Cashing in on the weekend of four grand moots including India’s best and India’s second oldest, some law schools managed to upset the Herbert Smith Freehills-sponsored Mooting Premier League (MPL) season 5 pecking order, while others held fort.
NLU Jodhpur won DM Harish – the only Indian moot on MPL’s world class moots category, NLIU Bhopal flew back into the league’s top spot after winning Surana & Surana’s corporate law moot and a hoard of other citations, while NLSIU Bangalore took away GNLU’s GIMC and India’s second oldest moot – the Kerala Law Academy moot.
However the law school that took away the weekend with a grand total of 53 MPL points was ILS Pune, jumping from 17th spot on the MPL table to rank six.
NLU Delhi was absent from the weekend, while NUJS Kolkata, JGLS Sonepat, and Amity Delhi were the others in the top 10 whose presence was missed this weekend and who slipped in ranks.
The mooting circuit was abuzz with action at Mumbai, Kerala, Gandhinagar and Mysore, in addition to right here on the Legally India Blogs.
DM Harish
NLU Jodhpur speakers Pooja Menon and Vanshika Mohta and researcher Sakshi Singh clinched the 15th DM Harish International at GLC Mumbai, along with citation for best memorial.
Adding to the world class standard of the moot, the organisers boosted transparency this time by providing the score breakdown of each participating team to every other team at the end of each round at the moot, Menon told Legally India.
As a winning strategy, Menon vouched for the effectiveness of “breaking down” the arguments for the benefit of judges who’d likely not be as well versed with the moot problem as the team which had been preparing for the competition for four months.
ILS Pune made a killing of 25 tier 2 points by coming in runners up and its researcher Catherine P Joseph winning the best researcher citation at the moot.
Semi finalist NLUO Cuttack also picked up the best speaker citation through Priyanka Murali. NLIU was the other semi finalist.
[Check out GLC’s live blog for the blow-by-blow account and pictures]
Old school KLA
Initially thrown off by the unexpected lack of a memorial exchange at the moot, and escaping a close call in its preliminary rounds NLSIU’s team of mooting debutantes finally managed to take away the 25th edition of India’s second-oldest moot.
The law school’s team of third year students also won two other citations here, which are not worth MPL points.
Speakers Debanjana Mukherjee and Apurva Shukla and researcher Harshvardhan Goel made up the winning team.
“The only thing which matters is how simple and clear your law is and how applicable it is to the moot proposition. Nothing fancy matters - no fancy compendium, outside cases, constitutional bench case law. As long as you’re making sense, [you’ll do well]. That is the general approach in your mooting which you should have,” commented Shukla.
Shukla noted that the moot was still carrying along certain old school features such as no exchange of memorials between opposing teams before rounds, the preliminary round was one huge Octa-final from which 16 out of 45 participating teams broke for the quarter finals based on absolute scores, making it quite hard to break for teams whose speaker scores are not enough in that round, there was no separate deadline for online submission of memorials which had to be submitted at the venue at the time of the rounds, and there was no provision for seeking clarifications to the moot problem.
NLIU, winners of best memorial, picked up MPL points here as well, alongside runners up Symbiosis Pune, semi finalists Nalsar Hyderabad and Pravin Gandhi law college, and best speaker Anusam Dash from NLUO.
GIMC
NLSIU speakers Isha Jain and Gaurav Bhawani and researcher Harshvardhan Sunder meanwhile landed the weekend’s other victory for Bangalore, at GNLU Gandhinagar’s 6th GIMC.
Sunder attributed the win to the team’s “structure of argumentation” and being “mentally prepared for [the] kind of questioning [which they eventually faced] from the judges”, thanks to several internal practice rounds judges by law school seniors.
This team of first year students was making its mooting debut, and faced the USA’s George Washington School of Law in the finals.
ILS Pune won the best memorial while Christ University’s Apoorva was adjudged the best speaker.
The second Nalsar team mooting this weekend reached semi-finals alongside HNLU Raipur.
[GNLU’s excellent live blog of the competition is well worth a read for the lowdown of what happened!]
Surana & Surana corporate moot
NLIU speakers Shaswat Sharma and Hirak Mukherjee and researcher Ankita Sharma bested RMLNLU Lucknow at Mysore. The team went on to win this year’s Surana corporate moot which was based on transfer pricing, after “some nervous moments” induced by a close call in the quarter finals, claimed Sharma.
“We nearly had a scare in the quarter finals. We [made the cut] by a small margin of just 8 points, so we almost lost to NLU Cuttack,” commented Sharma.
Sharma told Legally India that Bhopal has seen an “unofficial’ internal mooting policy ramp us this season which involves practicing oral rounds more than before.
“NLIU Bhopal always had been good at mooting. Last year we probably didn’t have luck in place, this yar luck has been kinder,” he said.
Bhopal wound up the weekend’s spate of citations with the best memorial in this moot while Nalsar’s Pranav Verma was adjudged the best speaker. GNLU and UPES Dehradun reached the semi finals.
League trends
NLSIU justifies the top spot in the league at the moment, by raking up the maximum number of wins so far – a total of five including the Jessup regional moot, however NLIU which falls one win short of NLSIU has still managed to dethrone Bangalore.
Bangalore has now replaced NLU Delhi which had reserved second place with last season’s Manfred Lachs world rounds cut, despite just one mooting win so far this season.
NLUO has been a new force to reckon with this season beating NLU Jodhpur to third place, despite Jodhpur’s leading score of 50 in the tier two and more overall wins than Orissa. Bulking up on tier four citations have been Orissa’s recipe for jumping ranks this season.
Reaching the semi finals of several tier 4 moots is the most that can be given to Nalsar’s credit so far, though the season waits to see Hyderabad’s performance at the Jessup world rounds for which it qualified last weekend.
Correction: An earlier version of the story mentioned NLIU as claiming second spot on the league table, due to a calculation error. After correction, NLIU has now claimed the top spot. GLC was also erroneously awarded organiser points for DM Harish, in which it in fact participated.
Upcoming moot: ULC Bangalore National moot (Feb 22- 23)
At a glance: By law school
| ### Law school | ### Award | ### Score |
|---|---|---|
| ILS Pune | D.M. Harish (Runners up + Best Researcher) T2 + GIMC (Best Memorial) T4 | 25 + 20 + 8 = 53 |
| NLU J | D.M. Harish (Best Team + Best Memorial) T2 | 30 + 20 = 50 |
| NLIU | D.M. Harish (Semi- Finalist) T2 + Surana Corp (Best Team+ Best Memorial) T4 + KLA (Best Memorial) T4 | 15 + 15 + 8 +8 = 46 |
| NLUO Cuttack | D.M. Harish (Best Speaker + Semi - Finalist) T2 + KLA (Best Speaker) T4 | 20 + 15 + 8 = 43 |
| NLSIU | GIMC (Best Team) T4 + KLA (Best Team) T4 | 15 + 15 = 30 |
| NALSAR | GIMC (Semi- Finalist) T4 + Surana Corp (Best Speaker) + KLA (Semi - Finalist) T4 | 4 + 8 + 4 = 16 |
| School of Law, Christ University | GIMC (Best Speaker) T4 | 8 |
| RMLNLU | Surana Corp (Runners up) T4 | 8 |
| Symbiosis Law School, Pune | KLA (Runners up) T4 | 8 |
| GNLU | GIMC (Organiser) T4 + Surana Corp (Semi - Finalist) T4 | 2 + 4 = 6 |
| HNLU | GIMC (Semi- Finalist) T4 | 4 |
| Praveen Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai | KLA (Semi - Finalist) T4 | 4 |
| UPES Dehradun | Surana Corp (Semi - Finalist) T4 | 4 |
| JSS Law College, Mysore | Surana Corp (Organisers) T4 | 2 |
| KLA | KLA (Organiser) T4 | 2 |
At a glance: By moot
| ### Moot | ### Law School |
|---|---|
| D.M. Harish Winners | NLU-J |
| D.M. Harish Runners up | ILS Pune |
| D.M. Harish Best Researcher | Catherine P Joseph from ILS Pune |
| D.M. Harish Best Memorial | NLU-J |
| D.M. Harish Best Speaker | Priyanka Murali from NLUO |
| D.M. Harish Semi-Finalists | NLIU & NLUO |
| GIMC Winners | NLSIU |
| GIMC Runners up | GWU, School of Law |
| GIMC Best Memorial | ILS Pune |
| GIMC Best Speaker | Ms. Apoorva from School of Law, Christ University |
| GIMC Semi-Finalists | HNLU and NALSAR |
| Surana Corp Winners | NLIU |
| Surana Corp Runners up | RMLNLU |
| Surana Corp Best Memorial | NLIU Bhopal |
| Surana Corp Best Speaker | Pranav Verma from NALSAR |
| Surana Corp Semi-Finalists | UPES and GNLU |
| KLA Winners | NLSIU |
| KLA Runners up | Symbiosis Law School Pune |
| KLA Best Memorial | NLIU Bhopal |
| KLA Best Speaker | Anusam Dash from NLUO |
| KLA Semi-Finalists | NALSAR & Praveen Gandhi Law College |
MPL 5 Season Rankings
| Law school | T1 | T2 | T3 | T4 | T5 | Org | W | R/u | S/F | B S | B M/R | HM | Pts | Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NLIU Bhopal | 15 | 40 | 59 | 21 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 135 | Raj Anand (Best team) + BCI moot (Runners up, Best mooter – female) + Rizvi Moot (Winners) + NLIU Juris Corp (Organisers) + SOEL Pro bono Moot (Runner’s up, Best Memorial) + Stetson South ( Best team) + KK Luthra (Semi finalist) + DM Harish (Semi finalist) + Surana Corp (Best team + Best memorial) + KLA (Best memorial) | |||
| 2 | NLSIU Bangalore | 75 | 49 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 134 | Henry Dunant (Best advocate, semi finalist) + BCI moot (semi finalist) + HNLU Moot (Winners) + NLIU Juris Corp (Semi Finals) + Stetson South (runner’s up) + Oxford Price Media Moot, South Asia (Semi- Finalist + Best Memorials)+ KK Luthra (Best team) + Jessup South Qualifying (Best team + Best speaker) + GIMC (Best team) + KLA (Best team) | ||||
| 3 | NLU Jodhpur | 50 | 40 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 101 | Henry Dunant (Best team) + Raj Anand (Runners up) + BR Sawhney (Best memorial) + John Marshall Moot (Best Team – Ambassador Rounds) + Stetson North (Best Team) + DM Harish (Best team + Best memorial) | ||||
| 4 | NLU Orissa | 35 | 20 | 39 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 99 | Surana IT (Best team, Best memorial) + Nani Palkhivala (Best speaker) + Amity Moot (Best – Memorial) + Stetson North (Semi finalist) + Jessup South (Best memorial + Semi finalist) + DM Harish (Best speaker + Semi finalist) + KLA (Best speaker) | ||||
| 5 | NLU Delhi | 25 | 52 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 90 | Henry Dunant (Best memorial, Semi finalist) + Manfred Lachs World (Semi finalist) + BCI moot (semi finalist) + FDI International moot (Best Memorial - Claimants) + Stetson North (Runners up) + KK Luthra (Runners Up) + Jessup North (Best team) | |||
| 6 | ILS Pune | 45 | 10 | 22 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 77 | Raj Anand (Semi finalist, Best speaker, Best memorial) + Stetson South (Semi finalist) + Jessup South (Semi finalist) + DM Harish (Runners up + Best researcher) + GIMC (Best memorial) | |||||
| 7 | Nalsar Hyderabad | 25 | 20 | 20 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 65 | Nani Palkhivala (Semi – Finalist) + BR Sawhney (Organisers) + HNLU Moot (Runner’s up + Best Speaker + Best Researcher + Best Memorial ) + Stetson South (Semi finalist + Best speaker) + Jessup South (Runners up) + GIMC (Semi finalist) + KLA (Semi finalist) + Surana Corp (Best speaker) | ||||
| 8 | JGLS Sonepat | 30 | 23 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 56 | Henry Dunant (Runners up) + Nani Palkhivala (Best Team) + BR Sawhney (Semi Finalist) + NLIU Juris Corp (Runners up) + Oxford Price Media: South Asia (Best Team) | ||||||
| 9 | HNLU Raipur | 44 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 51 | SLCU National moot (Semi finalists) + Amity Moot (Runner’s up + Best Speaker) + NLIU Juris Corp (Best Speaker + Best Researcher + Best Memorial) + HNLU Moot (Organisers) + SOEL Pro bono Moot (Semi Finalist) + GIMC (Semi finalist) | |||||
| 10 | Amity Delhi | 30 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 48 | Rizvi Moot (Best Researcher) + SOEL Pro bono Moot (Best Researcher) + Oxford Price Media Moot, South Asia (Semi- Finalist) + Stetson North (Best Memorials) + KK Luthra (Best speaker) + Jessup North (Best speaker + Semi finalist) | ||||||
| 11 | NUJS Kolkata | 25 | 4 | 18 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 47 | Surana IT (Semi finalist) + SLCU National moot (Best speaker, Best memorial, Semi finalists) + BR Sawhney (Runners up) + NLIU Juris Corp (Semi Finals) + Oxford Price Media Moot, South Asia Rounds (Runners up) + Stetson North (Semi- Finalist) + Jessup North (Runners up) | |||||
| 12 | KIIT Bhubaneshwar | 40 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 40 | BCI moot (Best team, Best mooter – male, Best memorial) | ||||||||
| 13 | GNLU Gandhinagar | 29 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 39 | Surana IT (Best advocate) + SLCU National moot (Best team) + NLIU Juris Corp (Winners) + GIMC (organiser) + Surana Corp (Semi final) | ||||||
| 14 | Symbiosis Pune | 16 | 21 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 37 | Nani Palkhivala (Runners up) + Rizvi Moot (Semi Finals, best speaker) + SOEL Pro bono Moot (Best Team) + KLA (Runners up) | ||||||
| 15 | RMLNLU Lucknow | 15 | 8 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 36 | BR Sawhney (Best team) + HNLU Moot (Semi Finals) + Stetson South (Best memorial) + Jessup North (Semi finalist) + Surana Corp (Runners up) | |||||
| 16 | GLC Mumbai | 10 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 26 | Henry Dunant (Best researcher) + BR Sawhney (Best oralist, semi finalist) + Nani Palkhivala (organiser) + Amity Moot (Semi Finals + Best Researcher) | |||||
| 17 | RGNUL Patiala | 10 | 8 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 29 | Surana IT (Runners up) + Amity Moot (Semi Finals) + HNLU Moot (Semi Finals) + Rizvi Moot (Runners up) + Jessup North (Best memorial) | ||||||
| 18 | Christ University | 8 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 19 | SLCU National moot (Organiser) + Amity Moot (Winners) + | |||||||
| 19 | Nuals Kochi | 10 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 18 | Henry Dunant (Best researcher) + Raj Anand (Semi finalist) + Surana IT (Semi finalist) | ||||||||
| 20 | Sastra school of Law Thanjavur | 12 | 1 | 1 | 12 | Nani Palkhivala (Semi Finalist, best researcher) | |||||||||
| 21 | Pravin Gandhi Law College Pune | 12 | 1 | 1 | 12 | KK Luthra (Best memorial) + KLA (Semi finalist) | |||||||||
| 22 | UILS Chandigarh; Abha Sharma | 10 | 1 | 10 | Stetson North (Best speaker) | ||||||||||
| 23 | Seedling School of Law & Governance | 10 | 1 | 10 | BCI moot (Best memorial | ||||||||||
| 24 | Delhi University LC I | 8 | 1 | 8 | Nani Palkhivala (Best memorial) | ||||||||||
| 25 | SOEL Chennai | 6 | 1 | 1 | 6 | SLCU National moot (Runners up), Pro bono enviro (Org) | |||||||||
| 26 | CUSAT Cochin | 5 | 1 | 5 | SOEL Pro bono Moot (Best Speaker) | ||||||||||
| 27 | UPES Dehradun | 4 | 1 | 4 | Surana Corp (Semi finalist) | ||||||||||
| 28 | Amity Noida | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | Amity Moot (Organisers) + SOEL Pro bono Moot (Semi Finalist) | |||||||||
| 29 | Dept of Laws, Panjab University, Chandigarh | 3 | 1 | 3 | Jessup North (Organiser) | ||||||||||
| 30 | CLC Delhi University | 2 | 1 | 2 | KK Luthra (Organiser) | ||||||||||
| 31 | JSS Law College Mysore | 2 | 1 | 2 | Surana Corp (Organisers) | ||||||||||
| 32 | Kerala Law Academy | 2 | 1 | 2 | KLA (Organiser) | ||||||||||
| 33 | Rizvi College Mumbai | 1 | 1 | 1 | Rizvi Moot (Organiser) |
Comments
We don't know. We never will.
-Speaker for the Dead
Prachi and Team LI(MPL), Please look into the matter!! Thanks!!
1. Nul points for GLC, which participated in DMH.
2. No NLUO points for organising Stetson South.
3. NLIU in first place now, just ahead of NLIU!
We regret the mix up!
3. NLIU in first place now, just ahead of NLIU!
We regret the mix up![/quote]
Go home Kian...U r drunk!!!! ;) ;) :0
The ILS speaker Zacarias Joseph, won 2nd best speaker overall and Best speaker in the finals. Doesn't either of this fall into the category of "Special mention" for a Tier 2 moot?
Please refrain from acting like a tool here. Please.
Please refrain from acting like a tool here. Please.[/quote]
Let me rephrase it for your ocular satisfaction... Great going Bhopal..simply smashing!!!!
Khare??
Khare??[/quote]
No not Khare..hehehe... just Karre as in magnifique....
and Sarvatrajit Siingh.
I also think that the results of Ledin Sarin's national rounds must be atleast mentioned, whether or not the points are added.