‘Mooting for passion. Experience for win.’
EVENT SUMMARY
SVKM’s Pravin Gandhi College of Law (PGCL) hosted it’s 1st PGCL SAARC International Moot Court Competition, 2021 (the Competition) spanning over a period of four days beginning from 11th February 2021 to 14th February 2021.
It was organized by the Moot Court Society of PGCL on a virtual platform. Our knowledge partner for the event was MZM Legal. They drafted the proposition based on Public International Law which pertained to the theme of International Drug Cartel. Further, Mr. Parvez Memon (Senior Partner) and Mr. Abhishek Gupta (Principle Associate) were kind enough to take time out from their busy schedule to judge the semi-finals and quarter finals respectively. Ms. Nadiya Sarguroh (Senior Associate), Mr. Chirag Naik (Senior Associate) and Mr. Harsh Bush (Senior Associate) were judges for the preliminary rounds.
A total of 18 teams participated in the Competition, out of which 7 were international teams from the various SAARC nation states of Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan amongst others. The rest were national teams from various National Law Schools and other institutions.
Karita Benevolent Foundation and Deven Dwarkadas and Partners were the Associate Partners of the Competition, in addition Manupatra and LawSkills were the Online Research Partners.
The inaugural ceremony was graced by Mr. Sameer Patil (International Security Fellow at Gateway House, Mumbai) that took place on 10th February 2021. On 11th February 2021 Preliminary Round 1 took place, followed by Preliminary Round 2 that took place on 12th 8th February 2021. The 13th February 2021 saw the 8 Quarter Finalists pleading their case from both sides in the first half of the day. Furthermore, as the sun set and twilight fell, the 4 Semi- Finalists presented a scintillating performance before the bench. Finally, 2 of the best teams proceeded for the Final Rounds.
The Competition was a little unique than the other moot court competitions, in a way that, in every round of the Competition, the qualifying teams had to argue from both sides. Even in the Final Rounds, the Finalists presented their case once as the Appellant in Final Round 1 and as the Respondent in Final Round 2.
The two teams that went against each other in the Final Rounds were School of Excellence in Law, Chennai (SOEL) and Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar (GNLU). Final Round 1 was judged by Hon’ble Justice K. G. Balakrishnan (Former Chief Justice of India and Former Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India), Hon’ble Justice Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri (Former Judge at the Supreme Court of India) and Hon’ble Justice Makani Narayana Rao (Former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh and Former Chairman of the National Commission on Backward Classes).
For Final Round 2 the bench comprised of Sr. Adv. Sanjay Jain (Additional Solicitor General, Supreme Court of India), Sr. Adv. Devang Vyas (Additional Solicitor General, High Court of Gujarat) and Sr. Adv. Ritin Rai (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India).
Eventually, the team comprising of Miss. Swati Koul, Miss. Chahana Charles and Miss. Ansha Bhagat from GNLU secured the 1st position which was followed by Miss. Mansi Sethiya, Miss. Nimrah Ali and Mr. Aadesh Ramdorai who secured the Runners up position. The Award for Best Advocate Female and Male were awarded to Miss. Radhika Mittal from UILS, Punjab University, Chandigarh, India and Mr. Usrah Ibrahim from Maldives National University, Maldives respectively. The award for the Best Memorial went to the team from SOEL. Lastly, an Award for the Best Spirit of the Competition was introduced for a team that scored the highest in the Preliminary Rounds. The Best Spirit was bagged by Maldives National University, Maldives.