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Jindal tops MPL 4 Standings after 5 moots & wins for NLU-D, NLSIU, NUJS & RMLNLU

MPL4-fin-500
MPL4-fin-500

The fourth season of the Mooting Premier League sponsored by Herbert Smith began this month with top law schools notching up early wins this season.

NLU Delhi thumped NLU Jodhpur in the finals of the Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court Competition, Jindal Global Law School won the North India rounds of the Surana & Surana Trial Advocacy Moot and put up an impressive performance at the Tier 3 Henry Dunant moot.

Meanwhile, NUJS Kolkata, NLSIU Bangalore and RMLNLU Lucknow also started the season with impressive wins in the SLCU National Moot Court Competition, South India rounds of the Surana & Surana Trial Advocacy Moot and the NLU Delhi Corporate Law Moot respectively.

With 5 moots into the season, Jindal Global Law School leads the MPL 4 Season Standings with 25 points, followed by NLU Delhi.

MPL new entrants Jamia Milia Islamia University and RMLNLU Lucknow are currently placed in third and fourth position, followed by NUJS Kolkata and NLU Jodhpur.

NLU Delhi team which won Henry Dunant
NLU Delhi team which won Henry Dunant
Henry Dunant (NLU Delhi v. NLU Jodhpur)

NLU Delhi defeated NLU Jodhpur in the final rounds of the 12th edition of the Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court Competition. Jindal Global Law School and Nirma University finished semifinalists in the competition.

Gitanjali Ghosh from North-Eastern Hill University won the best speaker award and Navya Jannu from Jindal Global Law School bagged the best researcher award. The team from Jamia Milia Islamia University won the best memorandum award.

The NLU Delhi team consisted of speakers Utkarsh Shrivastava and Dhruv Sharma along with researcher Natasha Aggarwal and student coach Naman Joshi. Aggarwal said that the team faced some really good teams in the moot. “The teams from Nalsar Hyderabad, NLU Jodhpur and Jindal Global Law School were really good. Overall, it was a tough competition.”

Aggarwal mentioned that the judging was also good during the moot. “During the semis, we had Dr Rose Verghese on the bench who was really good. For our final rounds, we had Justice Ravindra Bhat from the Delhi High Court as the presiding judge along with Mr. Erikkson who was the Ambassador from Iceland. We also had Dr Niru Chaddha who was good. They were all brilliant.

“The problem was very biased in favour of the defence. It was funny that during the valedictory function, Mr Erikkson said that he felt bad for the prosecution teams. However, since teams had to argue both for the prosecution and the defence in each round, it wasn’t unfair to any team.”

Interestingly, Aggarwal appreciated a unique policy in the moot of having no restrictions on moot participants attending other moot court rounds. “Teams were allowed to sit and watch any other rounds that were going on. There was no restriction at all. The organisers felt that this would help the mooters as it would be a good opportunity for them to learn. We could look at our competitors - we watched NLU Jodhpur and they also stayed to watch us before the finals. This helped us prepare mentally during the moot.”

Aggarwal was also excited about NLU Delhi’s chances during this mooting season. “I hope the season goes really well. We have Stetson and K K Luthra coming up soon and I hope this is a good jumpstart for the season.” Prof. Vinai Kumar Singh from the ICRC Centre for International Humanitarian Law at the Indian Society of International Law (ISIL) confirmed the results and said that 44 teams from different parts of the country participated in the moot.

SLCU Moot (NUJS Kolkata v. ILS Pune)

NUJS Kolkata defeated ILS Pune in the finals of SLCU National Moot Court Competition organised by School of Law, Christ University, Bangalore. SVKM’s Pravin Gandhi College of Law finished semifinalist and bagged the best memorandum award while NUJS speaker Pallavi Sharma won the best speaker award. Faculty of Law, IFHE Hyderabad was the other semifinalist in this Tier 5 MPL moot.

The NUJS team consisted of speakers Nivedita Sen and Pallavi Sharma along with researcher Sankarshana Meeyala. Sharma said that the moot was very well organised. “The judging was very good and the standards were quite high. The toughest team we faced was Nalsar Hyderabad in the quarters. The problem was also quite complicated.”

Sharma was quite upbeat about the current MPL season. “This time we have some good teams for national and international moots. It looks to be a promising season.”

Adoksh Shastry from Christ University confirmed the results and said that 24 teams participated in the moot. Since Christ University did not participate in the moot, the college will be awarded MPL Organiser Points.

Surana Trial Advocacy – South India (NLSIU Bangalore v. GLC Mumbai)

NLSIU Bangalore defeated GLC Mumbai in the finals of the South India rounds of the Surana & Surana Trial Advocacy Moot. School of Legal Studies, CUSAT Kochi finished semifinalists and won the best memorandum award. Tuhina Pandey from New Law College, Bharti Vidayapeeth University, Pune bagged the best speaker award. School of Law, Sastra University, Thanjavur was the other semifinalist in this Tier 5 MPL moot.

The NLS team consisted of speakers Suswagata Roy and Sharad Bansal along with researchers Aditya Kumar and Shenoy Prasad. Roy greatly appreciated the standard of judging during the moot. “The moot had fantastic judging – there were a bunch of district and sessions court judges and some practising lawyers.” Roy also said that they had quite a difficult final round against GLC Mumbai. “The teams were good. Our semifinal round against CUSAT was also quite tricky. However, GLC Mumbai was the toughest team that we faced during the moot.”

Roy also emphasised on the difference in the preparation for a criminal law moot while compared to other moots. “A lot of other factors like the amount of information that you can extract during cross examinations played a role in the moot. A lot depends on the kind of evidence you present.” When asked to comment on NLSIU’s chances of retaining the MPL title this season, Roy said that NLSIU was currently placed at an interesting juncture in terms of mooting. “Our internal team selection for various international moots concluded yesterday and we are hopefully optimistic about our performance during the season.”

Surana Trial Advocacy - North India (Jindal Global Law School v. Jamia Milia Islamia)

Jindal Global Law School beat Faculty of Law, Jamia Milia Islamia University in the final rounds of this Tier 5 MPL moot. NLU Jodhpur and Army Institute of Law, Mohali finished semifinalists. Sanjay Vashista from Jamia Milia University won the best speaker award and RMLNLU Lucknow took home the best memorandum award.

Saurabh Rath from RGNUL Patiala confirmed the results and said that 18 teams took part in the moot.

The MPL team is waiting to hear from the Kudrat Dev, a member of the moot winning team from Jindal Global Law School.

#Winning RMLNLU team: Anantha Krishnan Iyer, Natasha Sarkar and and Bhaskar Subramanian (l to r)
#Winning RMLNLU team: Anantha Krishnan Iyer, Natasha Sarkar and and Bhaskar Subramanian (l to r)
NLU Delhi Corp Law Moot (RMLNLU Lucknow v. NUALS Kochi)

Young law school RMLNLU Lucknow won its second MPL moot ever by defeating NUALS Kochi in the finals of the All India Corporate Law Moot Court Competition, NLU Delhi. GLC Mumbai and RGNUL Patiala finished semifinalists. ULC Bangalore bagged the best memorandum award and Anu Shrivastava from GNLU Gandhinagar won the best speaker award. RMLNLU Lucknow researcher Natasha Sarkar also bagged the best researcher award.

The RMLNLU team consisted of speakers Anantha Krishnan Iyer and Bhaskar Subramanian along with researcher Natasha Sarkar. Iyer said that the quality of judges improved as the moot progressed. “The judging was okay in the prelims. But from the quarters, it was good. The competition was also good and our round against GNLU Gandhinagar in the quarters was the toughest. We won that round by a whisker.”

Iyer appreciated the quality of the moot problem. “The moot problem was very different and innovative. It was based on the Delisting Regulations and there is not much case law on the point. It was fun to use a lot of principles and logic-related arguments to win the moot. You could not just cite case laws and win the moot.” Iyer also praised the moot organisers. “The moot was well organised. Hats off to NLU Delhi. They took care of everything.” Mubashshir Sarshar from NLU Delhi confirmed the results and said that 27 teams participated in the moot. Since NLU Delhi did not participate in the moot, they will be awarded MPL Organiser points.

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 Jindal Global Law School 15 10 1 1 1 25 [Henry Dunant] (best researcher, semis); [Surana Trial Adv - North] (gold);
2 NLU Delhi 20 1 1 21 [Henry Dunant] (gold); [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (organiser);
3 Faculty of Law, Jamia Milia Islamia University 10 10 1 1 1 20 [Henry Dunant] (best memo); [Surana Trial Adv - North] (silver, best speaker);
4 RMLNLU Lucknow 20 1 2 20 [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (gold, best researcher); [Surana Trial Adv - North] (best memo);
5 NUJS Kolkata 15 1 1 15 [SLCU Moot] (gold, best speaker);
6 NLU Jodhpur 10 3 1 1 13 [Henry Dunant] (silver); [Surana Trial Adv - North] (semis);
7 Department of Law, North-Eastern Hill University 10 1 10 [Henry Dunant] (best speaker);
8 NLSIU Bangalore 10 1 10 [Surana Trial Adv - South] (gold);
9 GLC Mumbai 8 1 1 8 [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (semis); [Surana Trial Adv - South] (silver);
10 School of Legal Studies, CUSAT Kochi 8 1 1 8 [Surana Trial Adv - South] (best memo, semis);
10 SVKM’s Pravin Gandhi College of Law 8 1 1 8 [SLCU Moot] (best memo, semis);
12 Nirma University 5 1 5 [Henry Dunant] (semis);
13 ILS Pune 5 1 5 [SLCU Moot] (silver);
13 NUALS Kochi 5 1 5 [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (silver);
15 ULC Bangalore 5 1 5 [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (best memo);
16 GNLU Gandhinagar 5 1 5 [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (best speaker);
16 New Law College, Bharti Vidayapeeth University, Pune 5 1 5 [Surana Trial Adv - South] (best speaker);
18 Army Institute of Law, Mohali 3 1 3 [Surana Trial Adv - North] (semis);
18 Faculty of Law, IFHE Hyderabad 3 1 3 [SLCU Moot] (semis);
18 RGNUL Patiala 3 1 3 [NLU Delhi Corp Moot] (semis);
18 School of Law, Sastra University, Thanjavur 3 1 3 [Surana Trial Adv - South] (semis);
22 School of Law, Christ University, Bangalore 1 1 [SLCU Moot] (organiser);

For more information please refer to the MPL 3 rulebook.

New MPL 4 Correspondent

Team MPL is looking for an additional MPL Correspondent to independently and accurately report results from all the national and international MPL moots. The position is remunerated and requires serious part-time commitment, professionalism and writing skills.

You will be at the heart of the Indian mooting scene and learn the ropes from seasoned MPL correspondent Prashanth R. You’ll be involved in strategising and implementing key changes in MPL 4, confirming results of moots accurately and promptly, updating the MPL Season Standings and reporting regular breaking and exclusive stories on the outcomes of MPL moots. You will also have some responsibility for maintaining and updating the mooting pages on Legallypedia.

Students should not be very closely involved with a moot court committee in the coming season but mooting experience and good knowledge of Indian mooting is essential.

If you have what it takes, please email . Please briefly introduce yourself and outline: (a) why you think you would make a good MPL correspondent, (b) how would you improve the MPL, and (c) your mooting-related experience.

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