The Dr. Gurjeet Singh Memorial National Moot Court Competition is the first national moot court competition organised by the National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam. The competition set the ball rolling as the 1st NLUJAA National Moot Court Competition but when our beloved Founder- Vice Chancellor, Late Prof (Dr.) Gurjeet Singh had left for his heavenly abode on the 1st of April, 2017, the university thoughtfully took the decision to rename the competition in his honour which would be fitting reply to his contribution and would symbolically immortalize his legacy through the coming times of National Law University and Judicial Academy, Assam.
This competition witnessed a lot of first time initiatives being put down in the maiden NMCC of NLUJAA like our introduction of an impromptu moot problem for the semi-finals and final round of the competition to make it exciting and challenging and the establishment of student adjudicators where the students of the host university participated extensively to get the feel of the other side of the bench which had a hand in the students inculcating an observant and inquisitive nature for the role they undertook.
With the moot proposition being released nearly a month prior to the competition, it was very encouraging to see thirteen teams from all over the country participating in our very first edition of our flagship national moot court competition. It was pleasant to see teams from Amity Lucknow, Amity Noida, Symbiosis Pune, Haldia Law College, Adamas University, UILS Punjab, NEF Law College, Saveeta Law School, UPES, GNLU, Lloyd Noida, Central University of South Bihar and NUALS taking part in the competition though the NUALS’s team unfortunately could not make it for the event due to an outbreak of Hepatitis A in their campus.
The inauguration of the 1st edition of Dr. Gurjeet Singh Memorial National Moot Court was held on 9th of April, 2017 where all the ceremonial formalities were done and had officially marked the beginning of the competition. The next day witnessed the progression of the preliminary rounds and quarter finals where the judges had taken enough acute measures to test the acumen of the participants. At the end of the day and with the declaration of results, the impromptu moot problem was released among the semi-finalists. Having less than a day’s time to prepare, all the teams fought fiercely while also maintaining their equanimity and ultimately, UILS Punjab and Amity Noida marched into the finals along with Mr. Subornadeep Bhattacharjee and Mr. Udit Singh booking their adjudicator seats for the Grand Finale.
The final of the competition was judged by the Hon’ble Judge of the Gauhati High Court, Mr. Ujjwal Bhuyan who was accompanied by two senior advocates of the Gauhati High Court. It was a treat to see the finals where both teams did exceptionally well by often responding back to the googlies and doosras, launched by the judges and the student adjudicator while grilling the participants.
As some stories are always meant to stay the same where there will always be a winner, UILS Punjab took the glamorous and seductive matt-black winner’s trophy and a cash prize of Rs. 30,000 back to their home while Amity Noida also took an equally stunning Runners-up trophy and a cash prize of Rs. 20,000 along with them. The Best Student Counsel for Semis and Finals went to Ms. Radhika Nagu from Amity Law School, Amity University, Noida with a cash price of Rs. 15,000 while the Best student counsel for the prelims and quarters was awarded to Ms. Nikita Garg from UILS, Panjab University with a cash price of Rs. 15,000. The Second Best student counsel for prelims and quarters had been won by Ms. Garvita Sethi from UILS, Panjab University with a cash price of Rs. 10,000 and again with UILS Punjab sweeping the valedictory ceremony in their name had also won the best memorandum along with a cash prize of Rs. 10,000. The second best memorandum goes to Lloyd Law College with cash price of Rs. 5,000. And finally our maiden Best Student Adjudicator was awarded to Mr. Udit Singh with cash price of Rs. 5,000.
As the competition had to be wrapped up, it had wrapped up with a bang as all the students ended the evening with a lovely proshow that was held in the University administrative block, giving a very ‘club-esque’ feeling to everybody on the dance-floor and also the participants did take away a lot of cherishing and memorable North East memories that they carried along with them from their getaway to Shillong.
In the end, the Moot Court Committee of NLUJAA lets SCC and EBC, Knowledge Partners know of its heartfelt gratitude for being encouraging and extremely helpful sponsors and especially Saba Anis Ma’am for all the support that she provided us. We hope to see an even greater participation for the second edition and make it an equally greater experience to everyone associated with the competition right from the sponsors to the volunteers.
