From 8th to 10th of September in the year of 2017, the KIIT School of Law, Bhubaneswar felt the tremendous heat that the participants brought with them in the 5th KIIT National Moot Court Competition. Colleges across the country cemented their positions as participants in the competition by successfully cutting through the Memo Selection process. The atmosphere witnessed utter display of dedication of both, the Participants as well as the strong KIIT School of Law Moot Court Society.
INAUGURAL EVENT
The morning of 8th September was when the grand inaugural ceremony took place, welcoming all the participants. The dias was decorated with highly learned and respected legal luminaries who spared no words in praising the enthusiasm that they were witnessing in the eyes of the participants. The chief guest of the event, Prof. (Dr.) Srikrishna Deva Rao, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University, Odisha, in his speech guided the students to think like a lawyer and focused on the importance of philosophy, political knowledge, social science and literature in law, praised the mooting culture developing in the Law schools, and ended the ceremony wishing the participants good luck.
PRELIMINARY ROUNDS
As the rounds commenced, the participants showed a beautiful blend of strong argumentation and court room etiquettes. The rounds were judged by eminent personalities of law, who proved the participants that qualifying for the next round won’t be an easy effort and they have to struggle hard for every point that they shall earn. The judges also impressed by the quality of arguments the participants were presenting, and couldn’t help but extend the time limit for a few more minutes to let the participants to put forward their points. After the preliminary rounds, 8 teams walked into the Quarter-Finals.
QUARTER-FINALS AND THE SEMIS
The 8 teams that entered into the quarters were now aware of what they were going to face and had accordingly prepared their arguments. However the rounds were judged by Senior Advocates and academicians who knew very well how to surprise the participants with even tougher questions, testing the participants and their confidence over their own arguments. After the Quarters, the Semi-finals took place in the two grand moot court halls of the college. The rounds were nail biting and the adjudicating panels included sitting high court judges who missed no chance in checking the teams’ knowledge of Law. As the rounds came to an end, two teams stepped into the Finals.
FINALS
On 10th of September, Amity Law School, Delhi and Christ University, Bangalore went against each other in the finals at the Central Auditorium, KIIT University. The auditorium was filled with participants and students who were there to witness the brilliance that the teams were about to showcase.
The adjudicating panel of the final round was comprised of J. P.C. Ghose, Retired Judge, SC; J. S.J Mukhopadhyaya, Retired Judge, SC; J. A.S Naidu, Retired Judge, HC, Odisha; Mr. Ashish Ahuja, Partner, Wadia Ghandy & Co.; Mr. Pramod Kumar Singh, Advisor, Competition Commission of India; Sujit Ghosh, Partner, Advaita Legal; Mrs. Shabnum Kajiji, Senior Advocate, Wadia Ghandy & Co.
RESULTS
With the end of the Final Round, the following came out to be the results-
WINNERS: – Christ University, Bangalore.
RUNNERS-UP:- Amity Law School, Delhi.
BEST STUDENT ADVOCATE: – Mr. Avinash Gautam (National Law University, Odisha)
2nd RUNNERS’ UP: – Sastra University, Tamil Nadu.
BEST MEMORIAL: – National Law University, Odisha
CHERISHING MOMENTS
Not only can one see the smiles on the faces of the winners, each and every participant as well as the members of the Organising Committee were smiling after the entire competition reached its finality. A big thank you and to all the sponsors for the event; SCC Online and Eastern Book Company, Lawctopus and Lawnet, without whose support the event would not have been possible to such a large extent. We also send our gratitude to J. Sagar & Associates for collaborating us for the third time. The months of preparation for the event ended all well as the participants bid adios to the KIIT School of Law with the experience they came looking for. The successful event was an appreciation that the Organising committee deserved for their efforts.