12 Oct 2012|Noida | Amity University Campus, Sector-125
Symbiosis, Pune wins “Amity International Moot Court Competition” organised by Amity Law School Noida
The two day Amity International Moot Competition concluded today at Amity Campus, Sector-125, Noida with the team from Symbiosis, Pune winning over Gujrat National Law University (GNLU), Gujarat in the finals.
Hon’ble Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, MP and Dy. Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha), Mr. Mohan Parasaran, Senior Advocate and Additional Solicitor General of India and Mr. Justice Markendey Katju, Chairman, Press Council of India and former Judge, Supreme Court of India graced the valediction and felicitated the winners.
Welcoming the august gathering, Maj. Gen. Nilendra Kumar- Director, Amity Law School, Amity University gave a brief report of second Amity International Moot Court Competition and asserted that Moot Court Competitions are one of the most potent instruments of Clinical legal education, which trains the budding lawyers in the Court craft.
Sharing his views during the occasion, Hon’ble Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, MP and Dy. Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) motivated the young lawyers to take up litigation after the completion of their course because litigation offers immense respect to the lawyers. The prolific speaker outlined the importance of law profession by highlighting that all top freedom fighters, except Subhash Chandra Bose and Maulana Azad, had studied law in their lives and stressed that India, today, has a rich legacy of brilliant lawyers who are engaged in bringing meaningful change to the society. Dwelling on the theme of the Moot Court Competition, Hon’ble Minister, further, said, “Although at present, there is no massive war on the world level but sponsored terrorism and war has become the order of the day.” Referring to the recent case of Ajmal Kasab, the Hon’ble Minister elucidated the greatness of Indian democracy, rule of law and Judiciary and said, “A man who was involved in the most heinous crime of attack on India was given the benefit of sound legal assistance in Mumbai High Court and also in Supreme Court because that is what law of India commands. This brings us to the bottom of the entire issue- International laws can only be complied with when the country itself believes in the rule of law and civil society, failing which, it becomes difficult to enforce rule of law in the country. This is, indeed, the big dilemma, which needs to be addressed”. Quoting to the war between Iran and Iraq and ensuing issues between both the nations, he said, “both countries are not very good democracies. These are issues which civilized world and emerging world order have to address. There is a general consensus emerging that war is not a solution, there has to be an engagement, there has to be a dialogue and this realization, I am sure, would ultimately lead to an understanding in the world to make International bodies more effective and important.”
Sharing his views on International Humanitarian Laws, Mr. Justice Markendey Katju, Chairman, Press Council of India and former Judge, Supreme Court of India said, “lot of countries talk about International Law but in practice, they do not follow and they go as per their own interests. During wars and times of conflict, all rules and regulations are broken and flouted by powerful nations, they invade any country and do whatever they like. South Africa, itself, is a signatory to the Refugee Convention and therefore, is supposed to give aids to the refugees but rather than helping their black brothers who fled into South Africa from Zimbabwe to avoid persecution from the tyrannical regime of Robert Mugabe, South Africans slaughtered them and raped their women. India is often blamed for not signing the Convention but we, in practice, follow refugee law. All these rules of International Law are in a very nebulous state and in actual practice, they are violated during armed conflicts. An effective machinery should be made to ensure the implementation of these laws ”.
Ruing the lack of permanent seat of India in Security Council, Mr. Katju remarked that countries with much smaller population and land area are given permanent seats in Security Council but India, a country with 12 million people does not have a permanent seat despite of the fact, that India has developed a lot after 1947 and is inferior to nobody”. Justice Katju, even, proposed that Law teaching in colleges across India should incorporate more of practical aspect of law so that law students could become socially useful right after the completion of the course.
Dr. Ashok K Chauhan- Founder President, Amity Group, while sharing his views with the august gathering, remarked that Indians have special talent for Law and there is no comparison of Indian Lawyers worldwide. Conceding to the suggestion of Mr. Justice Markendey Katju, Chairman, Press Council of India and former Judge, Supreme Court of India, Dr. Chauhan announced that the law curriculum of Amity Law School would incorporate one class of practical law every week by luminaries of law from November 2012 onwards.
Mr. Mohan Parasaran, Senior Advocate and Additional Solicitor General of India, very lucidly, brought out the importance of Moot Court Competitions in the Law profession and suggested that more such Moot Court Competitions should be regularly organized in emerging areas of law such as International Laws and Disputes pertaining Intellectual Property.
The year’s moot court problem was based on the situation of armed conflict prevailing in three countries namely Gargola, Triala and Nivansha and involves an ethnical feud between two ethnicities, namely Nivanshis and Gargolians, occupying a major part of the aforesaid countries.
The two day event comprised of four rounds -preliminary round, quarter-final round, semi-final round and final round wherein 100 students from over 30 law colleges and institutes across India participated including Symbiosis Law School, Pune, School of Law, KIIT, Jindal Global Law School, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Kerala Law Academy, Faculty of Law, Aligarh and many more.
Over 36 judges including Mr. Anupam -Legal Advisor (LLM, London), Mr. Harish Katyal- Advocate, High Court, Mr. Dilip Niranjan- Advocate, High Court, Mr. J. S. Mishra- Advocate, Supreme Court , Mr. Rakesh Kumar-Metropolitan Magistrate and others adjudged the performance of budding lawyers in 19 courtrooms where each team was given an opportunity to polish their skils of argument, present a case and argue it on merits.
Four teams made it to the semi-finals- Symbiosis, Pune, Symbiosis, Noida, Gujrat National Law University, Gujarat (GNLU) and Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur and the teams from Symbiosis, Pune and GNLU, Gujarat competed in the finals.
Prize & Winners:
1. Best Memorial Award went to Symbiosis Law School Pune. The participants were given Rs.4000, medal and a certificate.
2. Best Mooter Award (male) went to Rohan from HNLU Raipur who was given Rs2000,a medal and a certificate.
3. Best Mooter Award (female) went to Ankita Lala from Amity Law School ,Jaipur and was given Rs.2000, a medal and a certificate
4. Runner up Award was bagged by GNLU, Gandhi Nagar and participants were given a set of books Rs.6000, a medal and a certificate.