EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW- WINNERS OF BAR COUNCIL OF INDIA MOOT COURT COMPETITION

Lucky people get opportunities, Brave people create opportunities and Winners are those who convert problems into opportunities!!!

Trophy is earned in the hours that none is watching. You people have proved the mightiness of action over mere words through your spectacular performance. Congratulations just seem a small word as the efforts were far greater to reach this pinnacle of heights. A very hearty congratulations to the winning team for their fabulous and historic victory after such a series of challenges. Their experience proves to be an inspiration for the upcoming aspirants who have a great desire to win but lack right guidance.

TITLES-

1- Winners

2- Best Speaker Male- Saunak Rajguru

3- Best Speaker Female – Somabha Bandopadhyay

4- Best Speaker (Round 3) – Saunak Rajguru

5- Best Speaker (Round 4) – Somabha Bandopadhyay

6- Best Memorial (Round 3)

Here is a few words of inspiration and complete story of their hard work from the participants of the winning team.

Ques 1: What made you choose this particular moot in the first place?

Somabha: It was not only for the prestige it upholds, but for me personally I wanted to take up a challenge for myself and my development.

Saunak: I have been a constant mooter throughout my law school life and I always intended to bring back the BCI trophy to KIIT Law School again after 4 years. So, this moot was a result of my desire to put my college on a high pedestal in the National Mooting circuit and I am happy that I had team-mates who had the very same intent as of mine. I was interning in the Delhi HC when I got hold of the dates of the 33rd edition of the moot and immediately called in my Team-mate, Mohit Rai to ask for his availability, and that was where it all started.

Mohit: I had already participated in an erstwhile edition of this moot court competition. Unfortunately, in that edition, we were not able to break into the semi-finals. However, the overall experience was quite rewarding, fulfilling and enriching in sense. So, from that time only, I had this thing in my mind to win this prestigious competition.

Ques 2: What was the process of your preparation? How did you go about it?

Somabha: Well, we had a team in place and our win was their cumulative effort and certainly not the efforts of the 3 of us. We were representing the entire team. We divided the moot problems as per everyone’s specialization or I should say expertise and then went about it smoothly. The 4 moot problems in 1 month was the challenge! The three of us divided the timeline of 1 month in a manner that we are able to devote equal amount of time to each problem. The rest formula, let it be a secret, what say? Every team has a trump-card after all!

Saunak: We got hold of the problem around 25th February upon our registration for the moot, but I had another moot in which I was supposed to participate from 3rd-5^th March organized by RMNLU. My team-mates were back in college and they had started the preparations in full-swing along with the team of well-dedicated additional researchers who helped us throughout selflessly in achieving the target. I joined the entire team around 7th March, 2017 and I knew that I did not had much time left to cope up with all the four problems. But thanks to the entire team, they supplied me with all the necessary materials, cases, reports etc. which made the process easier for me. We had a team of 10 people, who were divided as per the subject areas they had interests upon. The key was that we were simultaneously working on all the problems and that helped us in real big time.

Mohit: The process of preparation was quite intense and herculean in nature. The fact that the problems got released during our internship period added more challenges to the already existing ones. My past mooting experience came into play and I was basically able to chalk out a plausible plan to complete all the 8 memorials with a period of 24 days. Planning would mean nothing without execution. The execution of the plan was basically successful due to the collective, united and smart effort put up by all the team members. We had a great team of assistant researchers to assist and encourage us. The work done by Shivam Pandey, Madhurika, Kautilya, Amardeep, Akanshit, Subham Bhut and Abhishek was unparalled and extremely meticulous in nature.

Ques 3: How important is the essence of team effort during moot preparations? How was it like working with your team? Did you have conflicts? How did you resolve them?

Somabha: As I told you, this time the team was not about the 3 of us, but about the entire team. Team efforts always render the best outcomes since all mindscome together and we are able to dig out varied opinions and utilize the best.

For conflicts, well, did we have any? Even if we did, they are not petty matters, but to do with intellectual stimulation and grasping the best argument. Resolving it was through another and several rounds of studies over the conflicting opinions.

Saunak: For me, mooting is all about the trust you have upon your team-mates and it is key that one has to be comfortable with others. We had a great understanding between three of us and I can't remember any conflict arising between us. I had already worked with Mohit Rai on a couple of occasions before and we had won moots together, so it was never a problem teaming up with him. With Somabha Bandopadhyay, though I had not worked with her on any occasion, it turned out to be a great experience. We shared a similar mindset through-out the moot preparations and that helped us to remain on the same page.

Mohit: Moot is a team activity and I was lucky enough to find such great individuals who were highly professional, disciplined and dedicated to their craft. We had a lot of confidence and we always knew that with this team, we can certainly win it. We had no such conflicts or confrontations at any stage of the preparation process. This was basically because of the reason that all of us are extremely close friends and we have very high interpersonal respect for each other.

Ques 4: How many teams were you up against in the competition? Which team would you consider to be your toughest competition?

Somabha: 4 teams-1 team per round. The final round was the toughest since we were up against a good team from NALSAR.

Saunak: We were up against a total of 4 teams and the team from NALSAR, Hyderabad which we faced in the finals gave us a good competition. Both of their speakers were good and that was a challenging round.

Mohit: There were four teams overall and the final round with NALSAR was really a challenge as they were good orators with an appreciable research work.

Ques 5: How was the final round and who were you up against? How would you describe the opposing team? What were the techniques to crack it up?

Somabha: Final round, personally was the most interesting for me. We were faced with plethora of questions ranging from case laws to societal practicalities, sociology, psychology, etc. etc.. We were up against NALSAR, as mentioned earlier. The team was I would say confident, but probably needed more research on final problem.

The technique if you ask, I should say that, well we went ahead of only law and legal principles incorporating the idea that law is a product of the society. We used several sociological, criminology, psychology theories to build our arguments on something which has a strict law in place- the POCSO Act.

Saunak: As mentioned above, it was NALSAR and they were good. The strategy was simple, just to be our own and sticking to our main arguments on the point of laws. Our opponents were on a advantageous position having a series of cases favoring them. We had prepared a good set of authorities in our compendiums which was really appreciated by the judges. Having said this, I feel what made a great impact was the speech of Somabha regarding the various consent theories and her reasoning regarding the recognition of a consent given by a minor girl for having a sexual relationship. Though on difficult footing, she tackled all the questions put forth by the Bench in a great manner. That worked really well for us.

Mohit: The final round was both challenging and interesting from my perspective. There were a sequence of questions asked one after another and we had NALSAR as the opposite team. They had good research work but somehow lacked in some specific areas.

We had a clear basic concept and we leaded with law and legal principles incorporating the idea that law is a product of the society.

Ques 6: Students generally are scared when it comes to researching on certain topics in moots. How should a student go about when a moot is allotted to him? How should they research?

Somabha: Well, moot is about motivation, patience, confidence and hard work. Even though I was distressed after my first mooting experience, I did not lose hope. I nurtured myself in such a manner that I am competent enough to win this competition. So, my suggestion is don’t be scared of any topic. Some might be interesting, some might be a bit complicated but whether it is difficult or tough or easy or lucid is made up by your thoughts. So, take the challenge, only when you do that you will see how much you learn and how confident you become after the mooting exercise.

Researching, as I always say cannot be taught. It comes with practice. But, the basic element I feel is to question whatever comes up. This way you can delve into great details and the more you do that you have a fine-tuned research in place.

Saunak: After having done a series of Moots, I would advise the teams to first go through the basic fundamentals of the subjects that the proposition is based on. Once that is mastered, one should start reading the landmark judgments relating to the fact in issues, if any. One need not be scared to research on different topics. It is always good to try out something different than that of your areas of interest or comfort. I would also like to mention that while researching, along with the landmark judgments, one should also be aware of the latest precedents as the same creates a great impact upon the judges. It is also crucial to remember the name of the Judges and the Bench Strength of each case being cited before the Ld. Judges in the moot. So the research should be a combination of all of these along with smart work.

Mohit: Mooting is really a captivating and intriguing experience. There is no reason to be sacred of it. I will advise all the aspiring mooters to solve the problem at hand by the application of simple logic and reasoning. Get simple and logical arguments first and then explore the vast resource of legal jurisprudence to back all your arguments with requisite authorities. The basic understanding of the law which will have an application in the problem should be there. Don’t go for pretentious arguments. The arguments should be basically simple and succinct in nature. Researching is all about hard work. Read, analyze and discuss as much as you can. It’s all about hard work. The more you work, the more confident you become about your research and overall work.

Ques 7: How important is mooting in a law student’s career? What message would you like to give to the mooters and the non-mooters?

Somabha: Mooting is definitely important for those who are planning to work a career in litigation. But, mooting is an exercise which helps you to know the law subjects well and inter-connect it with other legal principles. Mooting is the holistic development of a law student- not mandatory but necessary. I think I have already given my message. But, yes this is to all the readers, have faith in yourself and keep working hard. There is no substitute to that and never be content with what you have done. There should be an ever-dying zeal and fire in you all.

Saunak: I am not yet qualified to comment on the benefits of moots in one’s career. But in the law school life, it helps a student to a great extent in understanding the practicalities of the law. On a personal footing, moots have helped me perform in an efficient manner during internships. The smart research one does during a moot preparation, the same being repeated during internships is always well-appreciated. I remember in one internship, on my 2nd day itself, appreciating my work, I was asked by one of the associates as to whether I had prior internships in the field of litigation. I replied that I had none. In my mind I was giving all thanks to moot courts.

Mohit: I think mooting actually boosts the level of confidence in one’s self and one’s abilities. I think confidence has the most paramount role in defining the success trajectory of a person. Mooting gives you a real life experience and basically educates and makes you ready for the world of litigation. I think, inspite of all the inhibitions and fear round, we should definitely moot for atleast once in our college life to experience this great and fascinating world.

Ques 8: Final comments on the level of competition and the organization of the competition.

Somabha: It was extremely well structured and well managed. The ICFAI Hyderabad has been an amazing host and BCI has taken care of every minute details of the competition. An aspect worth mentioning is that of transparency so maintained by them. I was impressed at this novel gesture of this moot, something all law schools and moot organizers should adopt.

Saunak: The level of the competition was decent in terms of teams’ quality. ICFAI, Hyderabad did a commendable job in organizing the event in such a smooth manner without any kind of discrepancies.

Mohit: I really appreciate the management as BCI was very keenly taking the details of the competition and there was a visible clearness maintained by them overall in the competition.

Ques 9: A quick comment on mooting at your college from each one of you.

Somabha: We have a good mooting culture and we trying to enhance the skills. Our Intra-moot court competition is over last month and the teams have been allotted their moots. So, let’s see how well the prepare and perform.

Saunak: Mooting is a regular activity out here in college. Throughout the year people go for moots. The administration is really helpful in terms of student participation in Nationals and lot of exceptions are given to students who achieve mooting awards. We have a great moot court room of a size bigger than that of Court Room 1 of the Delhi HC. Intra moots happen each year, where teams are allotted different moots. Also, I hereby take the opportunity to share the news that, we will be hosting the 5th KIIT National Moot Court Competition this September.

Mohit: I think our college has always gone beyond the lakshman rekha to help the mooters. I have always received great amount of support from my moot court society. Our faculty moot court convenor (Pratiti mam) and student moot court convenor (Prasenjit) were always there for us in the entire preparation process.

Ques 10: How the faculty of your college helped you about the moot proposition?

Somabha: The faculty members have been the key element for our wonderful research. I know I am boasting about our research! But, yes they guided us, asked us questions, criticized us and took that extra effort needed to win the BCI Moot court competition. Our Director personally sat with us to discuss the issues.

The environment in the campus for 1 month was exquisite and perfect to win BCI, which with god’s grace we have been able to achieve.

Saunak: The faculty has always been a good support out here in college. Our Director sir had formed a panel who grilled us 2 days prior to the moot and that helped us developing on our speaking standards and also made us make the necessary changes required in our arguments. A few faculty members had supported us constantly whenever we had any kind of doubts regarding the proposition.

Mohit: The extraordinary interest and support shown by our respected faculties under the tutelage of our beloved Director Sir was really encouraging for us. The screenings which took place in our college under the respected faculties really helped us in eliminating our weaknesses and flaws. Their advises were valuable and helped us in improving a lot.

Moot Problem Round 1 Click Here

Moot Problem Round 2 Click Here

Moot Problem Round 3 Click Here

Moot Problem Round 4 Click Here

Memorials Round 1

Petitioner Click Here

Respondent Click Here