MOOT COURT ASSOCIATION (PARTICIPATION AND ALLOTMENT IN MOOT COURT COMPETITION) RULES, 2017

These rules apply to the entire process of allotment of Moot Court Competitions (hereinafter, the ‘external Competitions’) held at other Universities/colleges from the date of declaration of results of the Internal Moot Court Competition in 2017 (‘Start Date’) to the date of declaration of results of the Internal Moot Court Competition in 2018 (‘End Date’, the entire period hereinafter referred to as the ‘Allotment Period’). These Rules do not apply to the allotment of Trial Advocacy Competitions, for which separate Rules are promulgated by the MCA.

1.      GENERAL RULES

1.1.    It is compulsory to participate in the Internal Moot Court Competition held each year by MCA to be eligible to participate in external Moot Court Competitions. Any student who has not participated in the Internal Moot Court Competition shall have no claim of any nature with MCA with respect to allotments. At the sole discretion of the Chairman, MCA, an exception may be created to this rule.

1.2.   A student will be allowed to participate in two Competitions in one Allotment Period. However, where a student has registered himself for an external Trial Advocacy competition, national or international, it shall count as a Competition for the purposes of rules 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 herein.

1.3.   A student will be allowed to participate in only one competition in each semester. Semester 1 for this purpose shall be deemed to start on 1^st June of the year on which the Start Date falls. Semester 2 for this purpose shall be deemed to start on 1^st January of the year in which the End Date falls. Those Moots falling to be allotted and registered between 1^st June to the End Date of the earlier Allotment Period shall continue to be allotted as per the Merit List of the previous year.

1.4.   For the purposes of Rules 1.2. and 1.3, ‘participation’ shall mean registration for a Competition. Thus, if a student has registered for a Competition in Semester 1 but participates in Semester 2, he or she shall remain eligible to register for another Competition in Semester 2, but will be able to participate in the allotment process only after he or she has completed the participation in the Competition earlier registered for.

1.5.   Basis of Allotment: All allotments will be based on the Internal Moot Court Competition conducted by MCA. No challengers shall be conducted for any allotment of competitions except in exceptional circumstances, to be decided at the sole discretion of MCA. All Competitions, whether notified or not notified at the Start Date, shall be allotted solely on the basis of the participation and the rank in the Internal Moot Court Competition. Any exception to the same may be as per rule 1.1 above.

1.6.  Bar on multiple applications: Applicants cannot apply for more than one Competition at a time i.e. only one application for participation will be considered at a time.

2.     PROCEDURAL MATTERS

2.1       Submission of Participation Form: It shall be mandatory for every participating team to fill the external participation registration form, failing which, their participation may be cancelled.

2.2     Internal Memorial Submission: It is compulsory for the members to submit their memorial to MCA four days prior to the submission of Memorial to the competition or on the date specified in the allotment form.

2.3      Oral Practice Rounds: Every participating team is required to appear for two oral practice rounds. The responsibility shall be on the teams to coordinate with the Secretary of MCA to organize those sessions. Failure to do the same from the team’s end will carry suitable penalty as per the discretion of the Faculty Convenor, MCA, but may extend to a maximum of debarring from Moot competitions for a period of one Semester.

2.4     Score Sheet: It is compulsory for all the participating teams in the external Competitions to submit their authentic score sheets (in hard copy) to the MCA after coming back from the competition.

2.5     Feedback: All participating teams are compulsorily required to fill in the feedback/ review column post returning from the participation. Failing this the members of the team will be barred from any future selection procedure for any competition.

2.6     Support: Members are required to prepare their level best for the competition and if required seek the help of the MCA advisory committee to enhance the quality of their written /oral submissions.

2.7     The teams are required to conduct themselves with honor and dignity at all times and not commit any activities so as to not tarnish the name and repute of the College.

2.8     Generality: Once a member sends an application form he is deemed to have been aware of all the rules enshrined under this notification.

2.9    Compulsory Approval: No student is allowed to register themselves for any external competition without prior approval of MCA. Any action in contradiction of this clause attracts lifetime ban from MCA.

2.10 Provisional Registration: MCA will be provisionally registering the institution if required till the time the allotment is done as per the rules.

2.11   Submission of Trophies: The students participating in the Competitions, should they win any trophies at the event, whether on individual or team basis, shall be required to submit their winning trophies to the MCA after participating in the competitions. They may however, keep their certificates.

2.12  Disciplinary Action: In any case of any breach of these Rules, a Disciplinary Action will be initiated against the erring student or team, as the case may be.

2.13  Residuary Penalty: Any member flouting any of the rules for which separate penalty has not been provided will be barred from participating in any competition for a suitable period, which may extend to the whole duration of his Course.

2.14  Post allotment: Any team backing out of a competition post allotment will be barred from participating in any competition for a year. In case of a valid justification being provided by any of the team members, the penalty period may be reduced to six months. The final decision in this regard shall be taken by the Faculty Convenor in consultation with the Faculty Co-convenor.

2.15   All disputes will be settled by the MCA and the MCA reserves the right to disbar any student from applying in any competition owing to his other academic or disciplinary actions.

2.16 The MCA reserves the authority to exercise any residuary power and change the allotting procedure at any time without notice.

2.17  Notification of Moots: All upcoming moots will be notified on the upesmoot.blogspot.in and then the rules applicable for the allotment of moot.

3.        ALLOTMENT RULES

3.1      Team Composition: All participation in the Internal Moot Court Competition shall be on individual basis.

3.2     Classification of Moots: All external moots shall be classified under two categories. One category shall consist of all National Moots organized on Domestic Law of India (hereinafter referred to as ‘National Pool’) and the other category shall consist of all International Moot based involving interpretation on Subject of International Law (hereinafter referred to as ‘International Pool’). There shall be different process for allotment of different moots falling under this category. In the event of any dispute regarding the category into which any moot shall fall, the decision of the Faculty Convenor, MCA, shall be final.

3.3      Ranks: Speakers and researchers will be ranked individually as per their performance in the Internal Moot Court Competition.

3.4     Classification of National Pool: The National Pool will be further classified into National Speakers Pool and National Researcher’s Pool.

3.5      National Speakers Pool shall consist of all the selected rank holding speakers who participated in the Internal Competition for National Moots.

3.6     National Researchers Pool shall consist of all the selected rank holding researcher who participated in the Internal Competition for National Moots.

3.7      Once the National Speakers and Researchers Pools are formed, all external Competitions, whether notified at the Start Date of notified later at any time before the end date, shall require an Interest sign up from both the pools.

3.8     Once MCA receives the interest sign up, the Moot shall be allotted to the students with the highest ranks. The number of students, while ordinarily observed to be 2 speakers and 1 researcher would vary based on the requirements of the competition.

3.9     If any student chooses not to send his interest sign up for a particular Competition, he may send in interest sign up for subsequent Competitions. Thus, there is no limitation on any student on not sending in interest sign up.

3.10   If any student sends interest sign-up and is not allotted the Competition owing to the allotment to a student with a higher rank, he may send in interest sign up for subsequent Competitions. Thus, there is no limitation on any failed interest sign ups.

3.11     If any student is allotted a moot, he has to proceed with registration and participation.

3.12   Subject to other rules, while such a student may send further interest sign-up in the same Allotment period, he will only be allotted another Competition once all other students in the pool have exhausted their opportunities to be allotted a Competition, should they choose to apply.

3.13    Where interest sign-ups for a Moot are less than the required number, MCA will take suitable action, depending on the circumstances, and may allot the Moot after completing the team as seems fit, or choose to not allot the Moot.

3.14   All the above Rules pertaining to allotment through the National Pool  shall apply mutatis mutandis to the International Pool.

3.15   The MCA reserves the authority to exercise any residuary power and change the allotting procedure at any time without notice.

3.16   Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, MCA reserves the right to alter team compositions, if the circumstances so demand, while keeping the best interests of the students and the University in consideration.

4.         MISCELLANEOUS

4.1      Copyright: The copyright of the memorials of the teams from CoLS, UPES (internal and national/international moot) vest jointly with the team and the MCA.  However, no team will be allowed to make their memorials public without taking prior permission of the MCA.

4.2     Allotment on the basis of previous performance: MCA wishes to incentivize good performance in External Competitions. In this regard, a team that wins a reputed Moot Court Competition shall be allotted another un-allotted Moot that is not opted for by any student holding any of the top 10 ranks in either of the pools. No other claim for allotment of external Moots on the basis of previous performance, whether in external or internal competition, will be entertained, and MCA’s discretion in this matter remains final.

4.3     Allotted Moot falling during any of the Semester exams: In the event that certain students are allotted a Competition and subsequently, it transpires that the same will clash with any of the exams at COLS, UPES, the team shall notify the same to the MCA and subsequently, they may become the part of the process allotment of external Competitions again, as if the initial allotment had not happened. No further remedy is available in such a circumstance.

4.4     Allotment of Moots to the members of the organizing team of Internal Moot Court Competition – While the members of the organizing team of Internal Moot Court Competition may not participate in the said competition in the same manner as other students, in order to ensure a fair chance to those of such members who are interested in opting for external Competitions, the MCA will conduct a parallel process. To ensure fairness and lack of any undue advantage, this parallel process shall have the following characteristics:

4.4.1         It will be based on a separate Moot problem on similar areas of law and will be of a comparable level of difficulty.

4.4.2       This problem will be drafted separately, by Faculty Convenor and Faculty Co-convenor, MCA and will be made public.

4.4.3        The oral rounds will be conducted as soon as may be after the completion of the general oral rounds and shall be judged by judges of similar standing

4.4.4       The marking of the memorials and the totaling etc., will be supervised by the Faculty Convenor and Faculty Co-convenor, MCA.

Once the said process is complete, the final rank list will include all students, based on their marks, as laid out in these Rules.

These rules have been notified under the Authority of MCA:

            Dr. Tabrez Ahmad (Chairman, MCA)

            Mr. Krishna Deo Singh (Faculty Convenor, MCA)

Mr. Anubhav Kumar (Faculty Co-Convenor, MCA)

For any queries or details contact MCA:

Yuvakshi Grover (Convenor): Ph. No- 8755890104

Deiya Goswami (Joint Convenor - Internal Moot and Novice)

Biswaroop Mukherjee (Secretary) at 8395012189

Official website: upesmoot.blogspot.in (for all updates and upcoming challengers)

Email id: mca.upes@gmail.com