From 10 am tomorrow (27 February 2011), Team MPL will be reporting live from the third [[NUJS Herbert Smith National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition|NUJS Herbert Smith Corporate Moot]] currently being held at Kolkata. I am Prashanth Ramdas, updating you with all that has happened in the moot up till now.

23: 25 The [[Mooting Premier League 2010-11|MPL 2]] is being sponsored by Allen & Overy. After last weekend’s Super Sunday, [[NUJS Kolkata]] and [[Nalsar Hyderabad]] share the top spot in the [[MPL 2 season standings]] enjoying a comfortable lead of 34 points, way ahead of [[NLU Delhi]] and [[NLSIU Bangalore]]. Many law schools, including organizers NUJS hoped that two-year defending champion Nalsar does not eat much of the Herbert Smith cake and monopolize the MPL top spot. And that is what has exactly happened. Nalsar has lost to dark horses NLIU Bhopal in the quarters. The other law schools which have qualified for the semis are [[NLU Delhi]], [[NLSIU Bangalore]] and [[NLU Jodhpur]].

MPL 2 Quicklinks:

• MPL 2 Homepage
• MPL 2 season standings
• Information on 53 moots
• MPL 2 calendar
• MPL 2 rulebook

23:35 With NUJS not participating in this Tier 4 moot, this weekend’s results should allow the other teams to shorten the huge lead that NUJS and Nalsar currently savour. NLU Delhi and NLS Bangalore are placed third and fourth whereas NLIU Bhopal and NLU Jodhpur are seventh and eleventh in the standings.

23:46 Anugya from the NUJS Moot Court Society just informed me that [[RMLNLU Lucknow]] was the highest team in the preliminary rounds of the moot. However, they were defeated by NLU Delhi in the quarters. GLC Bombay and Amity Law School were the other quarter finalists.

23:56 Tomorrow’s rounds will see pioneer law school NLS Bangalore pitted against young law school NLU Delhi. In the other semifinal, NLIU Bhopal and NLU Jodhpur will lock horns for a desperate victory. The judges in the semifinal rounds include the framer of the moot problem, Umakant V, who is popular among the students who follow the India Corporate Law Blog. The other judges are Ramya Hariharan from Argus Partners, Ranjan Bachwat, PP Banerje, Vipul Kundalia and PK Dutta, all advocates from the Calcutta High Court.

23:58 That’s all for today! See you tomorrow at 10 am for some live moot action from the city of joy!

February 27, 2011

10:00: Good morning everyone! This is Sanjay Khan, today’s live blogger. Will be joined by Prashanth Ramdas in a while.

Action in NUJS-Herbert Smith Moot’s semi-finals is about to begin. Will NLSIU overcome NLU-D? Who will prevail between NLIU and NLU-J in the other semi-final? Do share your thoughts with us.

11:00: Both the rounds are on. Should take another hour and a half to conclude. Guess we’ll have finalists by 12:30.

12:30: Semi-finals inch towards end as both Respondents start their arguments on substance.

15:33 Kian checking into the MPL Live blog: Sorry for the lack of updates – there were some internet connectivity issues at Sanjay’s end. The latest position, as confirmed by avid commenters, is that the final between NLU Delhi and NLIU Bhopal is about to start. We are awaiting updates from the organisers and will let you know.

16:26 The finals are underway, having finally kicked off at around 3:45 pm, according to NUJS MCS co-convenor Rukmini Das. A slight delay apparently “since one of the semi-final courts went on for really long”.

The judges for the final include to foreign law firm lawyers and an Oxford Dean. Full list: Justice Aniruddha Bose, Judge, Calcutta High Court (the Chief Justice of this Finals bench); Mr. Hardeep Nahal, Litigation and Arbitration Partner, Herbert Smith, LLP; Mr. Chris Parsons, Chairman, India Group, Herbert Smith; Mr. Timothy Endicott, Dean, Faculty of Law, Oxford University and Mr. K. S. Suresh, General Counsel, ITC. on stage and in the limelight.

The NLU Delhi team consists of speakers Nooreen Sauna and Ayush Srivastav, and reasearcher Srishti Maheshwari. NLIU Bhopal is represented by speakers Adithya Srinivasan and Nidhi Khare, as well as researcher Krithika Chandrashekar.

18:01 The finals are over and the valedictory session is due to start in 15 minutes, if everything is going according to plan…

18:38 Hi again, this is Prashanth and I will be taking you through the final moments of this moot. The valedictory function has just begun and all the judges air their perspectives on the moot.

18:50 Pre-result announcement analysis: If NLU Delhi wins this Tier 4 moot, they will be taking home 15 points (and will be the third team to score a century in the MPL this season); else they will just get eight. Either ways, this will help in minimizing the gap between them and the MPL top spot holders. Also, if Nalsar wins either the Best Speaker/Memorandum award, they will be earning eight points.

On the other hand, it is confirmed that the semifinalists NLU Jodhpur and NLS Bangalore are taking home four points each. If NLS Bangalore wins either the Best Speaker or Memorandum, that will help them to reach the nineties in the MPL standings.

1855 Undoubtedly, one of the best law school vice chancellors today, Professor MP Singh promises that many more academic exchanges will take place between NUJS and Herbert Smith in future. “Are these initiatives are aimed to teach the students the application of Corporate Law”, he articulates.

1859 The judges now are giving constructive feedback to the finalists. Justice Bose says that the problem was complex but appreciates the excellent case law research done by both the teams. Professor Umakant says that the problem dealt with those aspects which are confronting Indian corporate lawyers today. “Both the teams have done well to address the issues”, he says.

1907 Mr. Timothy Endicott, Dean, Faculty of Law, Oxford University praises Indian mooting and says that the strength of mooting in India is an integral part of the strength of legal education in India. “The strong mooting culture in India has in a big way shaped the modern of framework Indian legal education”, he says. Mr. Chris Parsons, Chairman of India Group, Herbert Smith thanks the audience for being present at NUJS instead of being glued to their televisions sets watching the India-England World Cup match where demigod Sachin Tendulkar scored a century when the final rounds were on. “I myself am glad to be watching these moot finalists instead of watching the match”, he says.

1914 Parsons reciprocates Prof Singh’s ideas and says that he will continue to support legal education initiatives in India. He also praises the teams’ mastery of the law and facts. The moot problem gets more extolment. “The problem was not only interesting but also highly relevant today”, he says. The moot problem drafted by Prof. Umakant can be found here.

1922 Results announced: NLIU Bhopal beat NLU Delhi in the finals. Nooren Sarna from NLU Delhi wins best speaker and NLU Jodhpur bags best memo.

1927 This means that NLU Delhi gains 16 runs from Herbert Smith (runners up + best speaker) and reaches a century with 101 runs in the MPL Standings. NLIU Bhopal gets 15 runs from this moot for the win. NLU Jodhpur gets 12 for best memo and semifinalist.

1943 The MPL Standings have now been updated. Adithya Srinivasan, Nidhi Khare spoke for NLIU Bhopal and Krithika Chandrashekar was their researcher. Along with Best Speaker Nooren Sarna, NLU Delhi team consisted of Ayush Srivastav and reseracher Srishti Maheshwari.

1951 Nidhi from NLIU Bhopal says that the problem was quite complicated and required a lot of effort. “The whole moot was a good experience, the competition was high and the judging standards were good. We had unbiased and well qualified judges. We knew that this was the only moot where we could have good judges”. She also praised the organizers and was glad that the team’s three months effort yielded positive results.

2016 “NUJS Moot Society Convenor Deepak Raju thanks the media and especially Legally India for covering the moot”, we hear. At this point we should say that this was the first experiment in virtual MPL live blogging, where the organizers sent us updates that we would use to blog. Here a few words from publishing editor Kian Ganz : “Today there were some hiccups earlier in the day and not quite enough updates were coming from Calcutta but I think it later, it really picked up and was a good read.”

Overall do you - the readers - think we should do more Live blogs for individual moots? If so and if you are a convener of a Tier 4 or up moot, feel free to get in touch with us and Team MPL Live can try to blog your moot live too. Only thing: you’ll have to promise to update super-regularly, otherwise the blog dies. Please email to mooting[at]legallyindia[dot]com for more on this.

2031 NLU Delhi best speaker Nooren Sarna just spoke to Legally India and said that the moot experience was wonderful. “To be honest, I was quite scared before the moot. We were a team of second year students and the problem had no clear cut issues. There was a lot of interpretation to be done.” She said that there was brilliant competition from the 16 other teams that participated in the moot. “The judges were absolutely amazing. It was a pleasure being questioned by them”, she exclaimed.

2123 Tense moments at the India vs. England world cup match. England need 89 runs of 78 balls with eight wickets in hand. Andrew Strauss is playing a captain’s knock and is still batting. Hope he gets out soon! I am off to watch the match and support team India!

Thanks for following the moot updates and tell us if you enjoyed the live blog. For Team MPL Live, this is Prashanth signing off!