Aditya Yadav is a 3rd year student of National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi. He was adjudged the Best Speaker in the Preliminary Rounds at 4th GNLU Securities and Investment Law Moot conducted by Gujarat National Law University. Aditya spoke to Priyadarsini T P (4th year) Student Ambassador, Eastern Book Company and SCC Online about his experience at the Moot and about being adjudged the Best Speaker.
Q. How did you go about the preparation for speaking rounds?
A. I made sure that I knew the Memorial and other materials thoroughly. Then I consolidated everything so that it would be easy to locate. I made it a point to learn and use the facts efficiently as Insider Trading cases in real life are also heavily dependent on circumstantial evidence and the facts were crucial to establishing our case. I mainly practiced with my teammates. I had also prepared to answer Judges’ questions beforehand which proved to be extremely helpful during the rounds.
Q. Did you use SCC Online for your moot preparation? If yes, which features of SCC Online do you think are instrumental to legal research?
A. Yes I did use SCC Online for my moot preparation. It does greatly assist in legal research primarily because it is a tremendous repository of judgments. One great highlight here was that this includes cases from foreign jurisdictions. My moot problem dealt with insider trading and therefore this feature was a boon since the development of insider trading laws in India have been strongly influenced by developments in this field in the United States and therefore having the ability to access judgments of American courts on the same helped me a lot.
Q. Did you use any other online databases such as Manupatra? If yes, which one did you find more helpful and why?
A. Yes, I also used Manupatra as well but it was mostly for the same type of work and the times I did use Manupatra it was merely out of habit than preference. I found SCC Online more helpful because according to me even though by and large the content on both the platforms are very comparable, I prefer the SCC Online interface.
Q. How were the Speaking Rounds? Did the Judges pose many questions?
A. The Judges posed many questions, mainly on the facts. In the second round, I was questioned on relying on an overruled case. However, I was able to convince the Judges on why such reliance was placed.
Q. Do you think debating helped in Mooting?
A: For me, debating helped to perform well at the Moot. I did not have a problem of stage fright. I think both are about logical consistency in arguments just that research backs your arguments in moots.