MPL 2 Quicklinks:
Two-year-old national law school [[NLU Delhi]] has hired former Nalsar Hyderabad graduate and law firm associate as a consultant to coach, advise and nurture its mooting teams as the fledgling college is now ranked in a strong fourth place in Legally India’s Mooting Premier League (MPL).
Ketan Mukhija has been deputed to coach the budding team of NLU Delhi as a visiting faculty on a part-time basis, assisting mooting students every Saturday.
Mukhija’s brief is to provide substantive help to the mooting team on legal issues and discussions and helping them understand the intricate laws and their applications in a given case.
NLU Delhi vice chancellor Prof Dr Ranbir Singh told Legally India: “In my view the success of a law school is determined by the quality of its students. The amount and kind of motivation provided to the students is very important, then comes the faculty.”
“The deal is that I give you the best and you give me your best. In terms of technology and infrastructure we have the best to offer our students and what we expect in return is for them to reach the highest standard of excellence.
“We have a good mooting team which consists of 15 to 20 students. It’s important to have a strong peer group. Our aim is to select the best of students and give them the best training possible. We have a very bright and intelligent ex-student from Nalsar who is helping us.”
Mukhija, who works full-time at a law firm, said that he could not accept a faculty position at NLU because of professional reasons and decided to lead as a consultant.
“I am very close to the management of NLU Delhi – its Vice Chancellor and Registrar. The working of the moot committee is democratic and transparent and we have a tough selection process,” he noted, adding that he had been a student at Nalsar while Singh was vice chancellor.
He added that only recently the job was taken up by him with an honorary stipend paid though he would not have hesitated in providing his services on a pro bono basis too.
NLU Delhi moot court committee convenor Devna Arora said that Mukhija is an experienced mooter and has supported them in all their endeavors. “Definitely the vice chancellor’s support coupled with the student’s enthusiasm to do well has helped us to get a good start in the MPL.
“We started doing well in moots when we were just a semester old and since then we have never looked back. Some prestigious competitions are yet to come and we hope to do well in them to continue with the good start.”
NLU Delhi currently has 33 points in the [[MPL 2]] and is 10 points ahead of fifth-ranked [[NLSIU Bangalore]], while trailing Nuals Kochi by two points and top-ranked [[NLIU Bhopal]] by 11 points.
Comments
Dude,
Mooting coaches are a novelty only in India. They are an integral part of Mooting elsewhere. Universities have major credit courses just for mooting (eg. Lucerne Univ. has a 6 credit course for Wihem C Vis. Students who take this course are coached and prepared over a semester for the moot. And how does a guide hamper the process of self-learning? It's not like these people have hired a team of researchers/formatters who will sit and make the students' memos! IMHO, a designated coach with considerable mooting experience (Mukhijaa was a consumate mooter back in coll) is a good step forward.
Not-a-NLUD-student
Helping students moot is one thing. A good thing. All foreign Universities have mooting coaches who assist in moot strategy and style, not on substantive issues.
If this guy is to help generally, that is brilliant. If he's going to give them arguments ('substantive help' in the articles) - that just turns mooting into a competition among law schools for only winning.
1. [...]
2. He helps conduct a moot court orientation for the first year.
3. Judges intra rounds.
4. Gives general advice on style and argumentation.
If you guys think a [mooting coach] would have the time to help 'substantively' with every moot, then I pity you.
We're new, We're better. Deal with it.
Hahahaha... you need one of us to teach you how to moot, how exactly does that make you better??
That's kind of loud and unwarranted.
Don't you think?
[...]
@ 1, if you thinks that he [advises] substantively, I was being organizing member of intra-2010, i know when intra was happening. [...] no chance for that. And if some one at the time of declaration of results give certain comments and tips to improve someone.That does not mean that its external help, which is being alleged indirectly.
Every judge is supposed to do this after results declaration of intra.
Instead of saying We are new, We are better, I would like to say, We are gaining experience, We are growing exponentially.. And MPL II numbers are suggesting that..
Don't trivialize mooting into this. Good seniors are helping out .. Good colleges are getting involved. But have some limit to this, let it not turn into a competitive battle where everything degrades into someone having more points than the other.
End this nonsensical discussion.
MIRZA BEST SPEAKER!