DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

MOOT COURT COMMITTEE

CONCOURS 2019

RULES AND FORMAT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. PRELIMINARY 3

2. REGISTRATION 3

3. CLARIFICATIONS 3

4. MEMORIAL 3

5. PENALTIES 6

6. ORAL ROUNDS AND RESEARCHERS’ TEST 6

7. STRUCTURE OF THE ORAL ROUNDS 7

8. EVALUATION OF THE ORAL ROUNDS 10

9. RANKING 11

10. MISCELLANEOUS 11
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1. PRELIMINARY

1.1 This event may be called ‘Concours 2019’.

1.2 This exercise extends only to first year students pursuing the five-year BA LLB
(Hons.) course from RMLNLU, Lucknow.

1.3 The Moot Court Committee reserves the right to nominate moots for the following
competition which it deems fit.

2. REGISTRATION

2.1 Each participant shall register with the MCC.

2.2 Students eligible and willing to participate in the Competition may opt to participate as:

a) A researcher; b) A speaker; or c) Both

The willingness of the Participant to participate as a Speaker or a Researcher must be indicated

during the Initial Registration itself.

The student must confirm their participation by sending an e-mail with the subject inclusive
of “Concours 2019 Registration” to mccconcours@gmail.com by September 17, 2019
(Tuesday) by 11:59PM.

3. CLARIFICATIONS

Participants may request for clarifications to the moot proposition via email to
mccconcours@gmail.com latest by September 18, 2019 (Wednesday) by 11:59 PM.

4. MEMORIAL

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4.1 Each Participant is required to prepare a Memorial for both the sides.

4.2 The Memorials shall consist of the following mandatory heads:

a) Cover Page

b) Table of Contents

c) List of Abbreviations

d) Index of Authorities (with page numbers)

e) Statement of Jurisdiction

f) Statement of Facts (not exceeding 2 pages)

g) Issues Raised

h) Summary of Arguments (not exceeding 2 pages)

i) Arguments Advanced (not exceeding 15 pages)

j) Prayer

4.3. Each memorial shall have the following and ONLY the following on its coverpage:

a. The Participant Code on the upper right hand corner of the coverpage

b. The name and place of the forum

c. The relevant legal provision under which it is filed

d. Name of parties and their status

e. On whose behalf the Memorial has been filed

4.4 The Memorial shall be typed on A4 sized paper, with the following mandatory formatting
specifications:
a. Font Type: Times New Roman

b. Font Size: 12

c. 1.5 line Spacing

d. Margins: 1 inch on each side.

4.5 For Footnotes, the formatting specifications are:

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a. Font type: Times New Roman

b. Font Size: 10

c. Single Spacing

The Participant must cite authorities in the Memorials using footnotes following the 4th
edition of OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities).

4.6 One (1) soft copy must be e-mailed to mccconcours@gmail.com in MS Word format
as well as in PDF latest by 11:59 PM on September 22, 2019 (Sunday) with the
following in the subject: ‘Memorials for the Participant Code _’. The file name of
electronic copies must contain only Participant code and the side being represented in
the following format: ‘13P’,‘13R’.

4.7 The memorial for each side should be submitted as one file only and not in various files.
Any violation of this rule will attract apenalty.

4.8 The cover page of the Petitioner Memorial shall be printed on BLUE paper whereas that
of the Respondent Memorial shall be printed on RED paper.

4.9 The Memorials shall not contain any annexure, photographs, graphs, diagrams or any
other representation of like nature.

4.10 Footnotes should be limited to only citations or any other information relevant to the
arguments. In no event shall footnotes contain extra or irrelevant information and in no
case shall footnotes contain arguments.

4.11 Plagiarism of any kind is strictly prohibited. Any memorial found to be violating this
rule would not be evaluated.

4.12 Six (6) hard copies for each side of the memorial must be submitted to the organizers on

September 24, 2019 (Tuesday) between 06:30 – 8:00 PM.

4.13 The hard copies must be identical to the soft copy. Any violation of this rule will entail a
penalty.

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5. PENALTIES

1. Late submission of Memorials 1 mark per memorial per 12

hours; disqualification
beyond 24 hours.
2. Exceeding Page Limit as prescribed in Rule 4.2 1 mark per exceeding page
3. Failure to use correct Font type 1 mark per page
4. Failure to use correct Font size 1 mark per page
5. Failure to use correct Line Spacing 1 mark per page
6. Failure to use correct page margin 1 mark per page
7. Failure to comply with footnote specification in Rule 4.5 0.25 mark per footnote
8. Failure to comply with Rule 4.2 1 marks per omission
9. Failure to submit memorial as a single file as per Rule 4.7 1 mark per memorial
10. Failure to comply with color scheme as per Rule 4.9 1 mark per memorial
11. Failure to submit identical hard copies and soft copies 2 marks per memorial

There shall be a penalty cap of 15 marks.

6. ORAL ROUNDS AND RESEARCHERS’ TEST

6.1 The Participants desirous of contending as a ‘Researcher’ would be required to appear

for a written test which would be aimed at testing the basic understanding of the Moot
Proposition. The Researchers’ test shall be conducted on 24thSeptember, 2019 (Tuesday).
The test shall be of 50 marks.

6.2 Participants desirous of contending as a ‘Speaker’ must appear in for the Preliminary
Oral round of arguments once as petitioner and once as respondent on October 1, 2019
(Tuesday). The participants would be adjudicated by a bench of two (2) or more judges
wherein, they would be judged on an individual basis.

6.3 All speakers shall get speaking time of 15 minutes inclusive of rebuttals which shall not
be less than 2 minutes and more than 5 minutes.

6.4 The dress code for the Intra Rounds would be that prescribed for advocates in the Bar
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Council of India Rules under The Advocates Act, 1961.

6.5 Any Participant found to be in violation of any of the Rules with respect to the Oral
Rounds may be penalized. The decision of the Judges/ MCC shall be final in this regard.

6.6 Based on their performance in the Preliminary Oral Round, the Participants shall qualify
for the Quarter Final, Semi- Final and subsequently, to the Final Rounds. A fresh Draw
of Lots shall be conducted before the commencement of each of the subsequent rounds
after the preliminary oral round so as to determine which side the Participant would
represent.

6.7 No use of any electronic devices, like Laptops, LCD Projectors, video camera etc. is
permitted.

6.8 Scouting is strictly prohibited and shall result in immediate disqualification.

6.9 The Judge’s decision in this regard shall be final and binding.

7. STRUCTURE OF THE ORAL ROUNDS

7.1 The Oral Rounds of the Competition shall be held over a period of two days.

7.2 Preliminary Rounds

7.2.1 In the preliminary rounds, each participant shall have to argue twice, once as the Petitioner
and once as the Respondent. Each participant shall be paired on the basis of the
Preliminary Seeding Chart. The Preliminary Seeding Chart shall be prepared according to
the rank secured by the participant based on their Total Memorial Score.

7.2.2 These rounds shall be jumbled and divided into sessions.

7.2.3 No two participants will argue against each other more than once in the Preliminary
Rounds.

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7.2.4 For the Preliminary Rounds, the winner of each such round shall be determined on the
basis of the criteria of evaluation of the speaker scores, as mentioned in the Rules 7.2.6-
7.2.9.

7.2.5 Each preliminary round shall be decided by awarding a maximum of six (6) points.

7.2.6 Each preliminary round matchup will be judged by two (2) orals judges, each of whom
shall mark every speaker on a score of 0-100. The participant with the higher total marks
on a particular judge’s score-sheet will be the winner on that judge’s score-sheet.

7.2.7 If the winner on a particular judge’s score-sheet is ahead of the other participant by a
margin of seven (7) per cent or more of the winning participant’s score, that participant
will be awarded 3 round points for that judge and the participant which has lost on that
judge’s score-sheet will be given 0 Round Points for that judge. If the margin of victory on
a particular judge’s score-sheet is less than seven (7) per cent of the winning participant’s
score, the winning participant will be awarded 2 round points for that judge and the losing
participant will be awarded 1 round point for that judge. In case of a tie between the two
participants, each participant shall be awarded 1.5 round points for the concerned judge.
Thus, every preliminary round will have 6 round points allotted to the orals.

For Example- In a round between Participant A and Participant B, Judge 1 gives an Oral
Score of 170 marks to Participant A and 165 marks to Participant B. The difference is 5
marks. Since this difference is less than 7% of 170 (which is 11.9), for Judge 1, Participant A
will be awarded 2 points and Participant B will be awarded 1 point. In the same round, Judge
2 gives a Oral Score of 160 marks to Participant A and 175 marks to Participant B. Here, the
difference of 15 marks is more than 7% of 175 (which is 12.25) and hence, Participant A will
be awarded 0 points and Participant B will be awarded 3 points.
Participant A: 2.0 (Judge 1) + 0.0 (Judge 2) = 2.0points

Participant B: 1.0 (Judge 1) + 3.0 (Judge 2) = 4.0points

If two or more participants have the same points, then the participant with higher speaker
scores shall be ranked higher. If two or more participants have the same points and same
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speaker scores, then the participant with the higher memorial score shall be ranked higher.

7.3 The Quarter Final Rounds

7.3.1 The highest ranked eight (8) participants from the Preliminary Rounds, as determined by the

Rules 7.2.6 -7.2.9 stated above, shall qualify for the Quarter Final Rounds.

7.3.2 The eight (8) participants that proceed to the Quarter Final Rounds shall each argue only
ONCE for the side allotted by a draw of lots. The fixtures for the Quarter Final Rounds
shall be as follows:
Rank 1 v. Rank 8 (Quarter Final Round I)

Rank 2 v. Rank 7 (Quarter Final RoundII)

Rank 3 v. Rank 6 (Quarter Final RoundIII)

Rank 4 v. Rank 5 (Quarter Final RoundIV)

7.3.3 The winners of the Quarter Final Rounds shall be determined on a round point basis
wherein one (1) point shall be awarded by each judge to the participant that won the round
according to that judge. The bench-strength for the Quarter-Final Rounds shall be an odd
number but not one (1).

7.4 Semi Final Rounds

7.4.1 The four (4) participants that proceed to the Semi Final Rounds, as determined by the Rule
7.3.3 stated above, shall each argue only ONCE for the side allotted by a draw of lots. The
fixtures for the Semi Final Rounds shall be asfollows:

Rank 1 v. Rank 4 (Semi Final RoundI)

Rank 2 v. Rank 3 (Semi Final RoundII)

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7.4.2 The winners of the Semi-Final Rounds shall be determined on a round point basis wherein
one (1) point shall be awarded by each judge to the participant that won the round
according to that judge. The bench-strength for the Semi-Final Rounds shall be an odd
number but not one (1).

7.5 Final Round

7.5.1 The two (2) participants that proceed to the Final Round, as determined by the Rule 7.4.2
statedabove, shall each argue only ONCE for the side allotted by a draw of lots.

7.5.2 The participant which wins the Final Round shall be declared as the ‘Winning Participant’.
The other participant shall be declared as the ‘Runners-Up Participant’.

7.5.3 The winner of the Final Round shall be determined on a round point basis wherein one (1)
point shall be awarded by each judge to the participant that won the round according to
that judge. The bench-strength for the Final Round shall be an odd number but not one (1).

8. EVALUATION OF THE ORAL ROUNDS

8.1 The Oral Rounds shall be evaluated out of a total score of 200 for each round.
Evaluation shall be done based on the following criteria:

a) Knowledge and Use of Law and Authorities: 20Marks

b) Application of Law to Facts: 20Marks

c) Ingenuity & Ability to Answer Questions: 20Marks

d) Time Management and Organization: 20Marks

e) Style, Courtesy and Demeanor: 10Marks

f) Effective Rebuttals: 10 Marks

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9. RANKING

9.1 Researchers shall be ranked on the basis of a list prepared taking into account
Researcher’s Test marks and the Total Memorial scores obtained by the
participants.

9.2 The speakers shall be ranked on the basis of a list prepared taking into account the sum of
the marks of the Preliminary oral rounds.

9.3 Accordingly, a ‘Merit Based System’ would be adopted wherein; the top rankers of both
the Lists shall be grouped accordingly so as to form the participants which shall
represent the University in Various Moot Court Competitions. Participants objecting to
such mandatory composition as prescribed by the MCC shall forfeit the right to qualify
as a participant representing the University.

9.4 The Qualifying participants shall be allotted a Moot Court Competition based on the
rank secured and availability of the position. This would be subject to the discretion
of the MCC.

9.5 It is the responsibility of the participants to enquire about all the aspects of the Moot
Court Competition so allotted. Any excuse of ignorance about the Moot Court
Competition or the financial viability would not be entertained under any circumstances.

10. MISCELLANEOUS

10.1 The M.C.C. reserves the right to amend, alter, vary or change, in any manner whatsoever,
the Rules governing the Competition, which would be communicated to the participants
within a reasonable period of time.

10.2 Participants who register with the MCC but do not turn up for the event shall be penalised
accordingly.

10.3 In case of any dispute not covered by the above-mentioned rules, M.C.C. shall be the final

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arbiter.

10.4 The Chairperson of the M.C.C. of RMLNLU is the highest authority that can be
approached as regards dispute resolution in case the participant is not satisfied with the
M.C.C.’s decision. The Chairperson must be approached only in the rarest of rare cases and
any such decision made by him on any issue/dispute arising in relation to the Competition
shall be final and binding on all concerned.

10.5 All communications made to the M.C.C. shall be on the same thread of the mail requesting
for registration of the participant. Messages or requests or submissions from any other thread
would not be entertained.

For any further details, send an e-mail to – mccconcours@gmail.com.

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