Conversation with 1St National Moot Court Competition Winners
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Conversation with 1st National Moot Court Competition winners 1st National Moot Court Competition organized by Institute of law, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra was held on 12th - 13th March, 2016 was based on The Juvenile Law. 38 teams from different law colleges perusing 5 year integrated law course or 3 year law across India participated in the competition. The National Moot Court Event was inaugurated by- Hon’ble justice R.K Jain, and the judges in the final round were- Justice Surya Kant Justice Raj Narain The valedictory session was presided by Honourable Justice K. G. Balakrishanan. The pre-rounds, quarter finals, semi-final rounds were judged by Senior Advocates of various High Courts, esteemed faculty members of different law colleges and NLUs, CJMs, etc. The finale round of the 1st National Moot Court Competition organized by Institute of law, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra held on 13th March, 2016 was won by the team of Delhi Metropolitan Education, GGSIPU, New Delhi. The winning team comprising:- Damini Bisht Azka Sheikh Kalia Harshit Dave The Best Mooter was awarded to Raavi Shukla of Chanakya National Law University, Patna The Best Researcher was awarded to Kamesh Vedula of Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, Delhi. The Best Memorial was awarded to UILS, Punjab University, Chandigarh. The team comprised of- Divya Anshul Singhal Priya Gupta The following is an interview of the Delhi Metropolitan Education, GGSIPU, New Delhi team which won the 1st National Moot Court Competition organized by Institute of law, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra held on 12th - 13th March, 2016. Page 1 The winning team comprising:- Damini Bisht Azka Sheikh Kalia Harshit Dave IN SESSION: Hello Guys, first of all Congratulations on your splendid victory! Winning a moot is esteemed moment... To recapture it we want to conduct an interview, it will take only a few moments. 1. What made you choose this present moot in the first place? Damini Bisht: Hey! Thank You so much! The moot problem was based on the juvenile law, criminal law and International law. The criminal law and international law is my field of interest. I still remember after the amendment of the juvenile law three of us were arguing and debating in the canteen whether it is wrong or right. I think the idea behind doing this moot was to present those arguments in front of the people. Azka Sheikh Kalia: This moot had the preposition regarding the Juvenile Justice Act. The Juvenile Act was new to us, until now. If you don’t know a particular Act, then you must do moot on it. That’s what I did. Harshit Dave: We read the moot proposition and since it was based on a new statute we found it to be a very intriguing one. Also, there were other laws such as Criminal law and International Law and Constitutional Law which were involved in this proposition. This made the moot proposition a riveting one. We also had a keen interest in the Juvenile Law. Also, the Institute of Law, Kurukshetra University is a very prestigious institution and hence we chose this moot. 2) The moot proposition was based on new Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, what you felt about the moot proposition? Damini: The moot proposition was undoubtedly a very tricky one. It was based on the new Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and was an intriguing one. We read the proposition numerous times and every Page 2 time we came up with a new fact related to our arguments. We understood all the facts in depth and then framed our arguments. Azka Sheikh Kalia: The moot preposition was beautifully drafted. It hits on the sweet spot of the new amendment regarding lowering the age bar from 18 to 16 years in case of heinous offences. My area of expertise was criminal law and ossification test. Harshit Dave: The moot problem was beautifully drafted every single loophole of the law was pertinent to the case. The issues were overlapping and sometimes they were contradicting each other and we didn’t want to contradict ourselves or to sound repetitive. We spend a lot of time scrutinizing the moot problem but every time we read it a new fact would emerge. The moot proposition was one of the factor that attracted us to do this moot. 3) What was your strategy behind preparation? How did you kept the balance and managed both your college schedule & moot related research work in drafting of memorials and oral arguments? Damini: The strategy behind preparation was not killing each other before the whole moot gets over. Just kidding, the only thing that we had during the whole time in our minds was to win this moot. The moot problem released and we divided our work. We used to attend all the classes during the day ( as our college is very strict with attendance things) and after that we used to spend a lot of time in library, computer lab and even on staircase. It’s like for the one month the college premises became our first home. All the moot work that we did was during the 4:00 p.m to 4:00 a.m, thankfully all three of us has the same habit of working in the late nights. From the starting itself we divided our work and made it clear as to who has to work on which part. One week before submission of the memorials we had our exams, that was one hell of a week. We used to come early in the college study for like 2-3 hours together give our exam and then run towards the library to work on the memorials. For that one week I don’t know for which trip my sleep and food went for. We didn’t get much time to prepare for orals, during the time we were travelling from Delhi to Kurukshetra University in the bus we were preparing our orals and everyone in the bus was staring at us :-P , but we became so badass at that time that we didn’t even care about anything and our main focus was only on to make our orals strong we made a list of all the possible questions that can be Page 3 asked during the arguments, we made sure that our arguments finished at the right time so that we have time to answer the questions raised by the judges. Azka: There was only one strategy which was, to win. We always keep it simple, in college hours we do nothing except of college work. Late nights are made for doing work of such kind of work. It’s more of a habit you can say. Harshit: The strategy was simple. However, the preparation was a very hectic and a time consuming one. We really had to strike a balance between our academics and the preparation of this moot. We discussed the moot problem over and over again. Then, we worked on the arguments and counter-arguments. The research was very extensive because right from the start we believed that research is the backbone for every moot. We researched on every argument extensively. Also, we are very thankful to our teachers who really guided us at every step of the preparation. 4. Team work makes the dream work. How important you feel the essence of team effort during preparations? Were there any roadblocks? Damini: We call ourselves “The Dream Team”. I think I couldn’t have asked for the better team, three of us are from the same batch and we know each other very well, the best part is that we understand each other’s working pattern. You cannot win the moot court competition on your own it always has to be the team effort. I am the person who jokes around all the time, yell at everyone and works best under the pressure. My team used to make me sit quietly and treat me like a small kid. Obviously every team has conflicts and different opinions, when three minds meet together they will have contradicting views but that’s what the best because this made us understand each other more. The one perfect thing about our team is that we don’t fall apart. We fight but when we are fighting one of us take a step back and try to solve the issues. There were no as such roadblocks and even though we had some we removed them by our efforts and we did what we decided to do when we registered for this moot court and that is “Winning”. Azka: Ours is a “Dream Team”. The work gets divided like a piece of cake and everyone knows there part from the start. Hence, zero possibility of conflict. No roadblocks as such. No two fingers are same and no two opinions are either. There tends to be conflict between two opinions. However, Page 4 the best part about our team is we don’t fall apart. When two member shares conflict then, the third member becomes the mediator. Harshit: That statement is indeed true to the core. Team effort is one of the major factors in mooting. Each one of us knew what we had to do and there was no misunderstanding between us. We all were on the same page. The reason why we won this moot was because the unity, respect and faith we have for each other in our team. The only reason why we didn’t face any roadblocks as such was due to the level of understanding between us. 5. Well, 38 teams in the 1st National, what do you felt about the competition and which was the round you enjoyed the most? Damini: The competition was really tough and just like our team all the teams have prepared very well.