Day 2, 7:45 pm

The closing ceremony has finally begun! We are nearing an end to the fifth edition of the NUJS-HSF National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition. It has been two wonderful, busy days for not only the super NUJS Moot Court Society but also the participants, judges and of course, the tireless volunteers. We have seen two days of blood, sweat and tears to put together what many have claimed to be one of the best domestic moot court competitions in the country. 

With the opening address delivered by the MCS Convener Puneeth Ganapathy, the Vice-Chancellor thanked the Herbert Smith team Mr. Chris Parsons and Mr. Nicholas Peacock, Oxford Professor of Law, Professor Christopher Hare and Professor Umakanth who drafted the problem. 

As the audience gets restless, the results are finally announced! The WINNERS of the 5th NUJS-HSF National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition 2013 are CLC, Delhi (Prithvi Rohan Kapur, Payal Chandra, Bharath Gangadharan)!

Runners-up - NLU-Jodhpur (Priyadarshini Rao, Arundhati Venkataraman, Teja Bhagwati)

Best Speaker - Priyadarshini Rao, NLU-Jodhpur

Best Memorandum - NLS Bangalore (Sarthak Gupta, Varnika Chawla, Aditya Singh Chawla)

Congratulations to all the winning teams. See you next year! 

Signing off one last time, 

Nidhi and Arunima

Hey Everyone, 

As of right now, the judges are exiting the brand new Moot Court Hall here in NUJS and are on their way to the courts. The 5^th NUJS – HSF National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition has officially begun – with participation from 20 of the best and brightest law schools in India and eminent judges who are names to reckon with in the field of corporate law, this promises to be a challenging moot that is high on quality of both student participation and judging.

This year’s problem was set by the renowned Prof. V. Umakanth on insider trading and takeover law. It’s exceedingly difficult to set a problem that is both intellectually challenging and engaging and he has succeeded in doing so without a shadow of a doubt. It remains to be seen how teams effectively tackle this year's moot proposition. 

Stay tuned for updates!

Nidhi Rao & Arunima Chatterjee

3:15 pm

Hi everyone,

The second preliminary round is now underway after a wonderful lunch provided by the NUJS Moot Court Society. The quarter-finalists will be revealed after this round. So this is the make or break round for some of the teams. Let the battle of the wits begin!

Stay tuned :)

Nidhi Rao and Arunima Chatterjee

5:34 pm 

Tabs are out! 

After 2 gruelling rounds, the spots for the Quarter-Finals are as follows -

(in no particular order) 

• NLIU
• CLC, New Delhi
• NLU-J
• NLU-D
• GNLU
• Symbiosis, Pune 
• HNLU
• JGLS

The quality of competition certainly shines through at this stage, so watch this space for a round-up of the Quarter-Finals - quotable quotes, gaffes et al. 

Nidhi and Arunima 

8:45 pm 

After intense deliberation, the judges in all 4 courts have made their decision. The quarter-finals saw some closely ranked match-ups take on judges who were legendary former mooters themselves, needless to say it was a close call in more than one court. That said, the semi-finalists are - 

• NLU-D
• HNLU
• CLC, New Delhi 
• NLU-J

The atmosphere in college is settling down after all the buzz of today, with enthusiastic first-time volunteers running around and the palpable environment in the room where tabs are announced. Today has been a tiring and hopefully rewarding time for all participants, here's wishing our semi-finalists all the very best for tomorrow, with the newly constructed Moot Court Hall taking centrestage in the proceedings there is no doubt that this will be a memorable year for those who are a part of the moot this year. 

Nidhi and Arunima

12:30 pm

Semi-Final 1 - NLU-D v CLC

The first semi-final was between NLU-Delhi and CLC, Delhi. In this all-Delhi showdown, there is no doubt that there was a bar set for high standards of mooting excellence.

The first speaker for NLU-Delhi was impressive with her poise and levelheadedness in front of an extremely distinguished (albeit intimidating) bench. The second speaker for NLU-D handled questions with practiced ease, a feat that is impressive given the make up of the bench.  

Moving on to the respondents' contentions, they were fairly consistent with their arguments. Not taking judges' bait, both speakers were extremely calm and did well to keep their cool despite having questions fired at them by the bench left, right and centre. The first speaker had a smooth and effortless style and half the women in the room fell in love with the sound of his voice when he began with his arguments. The second, who had the more daunting of the issues to present and argue before the court was faced with the judges taking a rather adversarial stand while questioning her, but she did well in diffusing the situation with panache.   

All in all, it was an interesting court with both teams almost evenly matched for both experience and talent. The second semi is due to begin soon, so watch this space for more on that and importantly, the results. 

Nidhi and Arunima

4:15 pm

Semi-Final 2 - NLU-J v HNLU 

With NUJS alumnus Deep Kabir now on the bench, semi-final 2 went off to an interesting start. We are told that tales of his almost fearsome knowledge and talent are stuff of legend within mooting circles. An interesting balance of judging styles ensured a riveting hour and a half of mooting. 

While NLU-J maintained a composed and systematic team strategy, HNLU's enthusiastic approach met it blow for blow. The judges kept both teams on their toes with off-hand questions and good natured heckling. Suffice it to say that the quality of competition at this stage reflected in the deft way in which this was handled. 

The semi ended with the bench handing out some mooting advice that is sure to hold all those present and listening in good stead for moots to come. The finalists for the 5th NUJS-HSF National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition are - 

• CLC, New Delhi 
• NLU-J 

The Finals are set to begin soon here in NUJS. Good Luck to both teams.