DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

MOOT COURT COMMITTEE

UNIVERSITY MOOT COURT SELECTIONS

GRAND INTRA, 2023

RULES AND FORMAT

1. ELIGIBILITY

1.1 All the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th year students of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University,
Lucknow, pursuing the 5-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) Course are eligible to participate in the University
Moot Court Selections, 2023.

2. REGISTRATION

2.1 Teams must confirm their participation by Google form latest by 11:59 PM (23:59 hours) on 13 t h
September, 2023. The link is https://forms.gle/RLK2XKSK1Tmw6eng8.

2.2 No registrations shall be accepted after the aforementioned deadline. No team shall be registered in
the event of non-compliance with Rule 1.1.

2.3 The Moot Court Committee (hereinafter, ‘MCC’) shall, through an email, confirm the registration of
each team, separately.

2.4 “Organizing Committee” refers to a member of the Moot Court Committee who will be overseeing
the conduct of each round.

3. CLARIFICATIONS

3.1 Participating teams may request for clarifications to the Moot Proposition by sending an email with
the subject ‘UMCS – Clarification 2023’ to rmlumcs@gmail.com latest by 11:59 PM (23:59 hours)
on 4th September, 2023.

4. ANONYMITY

4.1 Every participating team shall be allotted a Team Code after/when their registration is confirmed by
the MCC.

4.2 The participants shall not use their names anywhere in the Memorials, Researchers’ Test or Oral
Rounds and shall use their Team Code instead.

4.3 The participants shall not use any marks which may lead to the disclosure of the team’s or any or all
of the team member’s identity(s) in the Memorials or Compendium or in the Researchers’ Test’s
answer sheet. Non-compliance with Rules 4.2 and 4.3 shall result in immediate disqualification
from the event.

4.4 The decision of the MCC in any matter arising out of the above-mentioned rule would be final.
5. MEMORIALS

5.1 Each team shall prepare a Petitioner and a Respondent Memorial. One (1) soft copy (in MS Word
format as well as in PDF format) must be emailed to rmlumcs@gmail.com latest by 11:59 PM (23:59
hours) on 17th September, 2023, with the subject, ‘Memorials for Team Code _’. The file names
of the electronic copies of the memorials must contain only the team code and the side being
represented in the following format – ‘13P’ or ‘13R’, ‘P’ being for Petitioner and ‘R’ being for
Respondent.

5.2 The Memorial for each side should be submitted as one single file and not in various files. Violation
of this rule shall invite penalty in accordance with Table 3.

5.3 One (1) hard copy for each side of the Memorial must be submitted to the MCC on a date which shall
be announced by the MCC.

5.4 The hard copies must be identical to the soft copy. Violation of this rule would entail disqualification
from the Competition.

6. FORMAT OF MEMORIALS

6.1 The Memorial sections and the respective page limits have been specified in Table 1.

6.2 The section of Index of Authorities shall have all the authorities’ along with respective page numbers
mentioned clearly.

6.3 The colour scheme for the cover page of the soft copy of the memorials shall be Blue for Petitioners
and Red for Respondents.

6.4 Each memorial shall have only the following on its cover page

a) Team Code of the submitting team mentioned in the top right corner

b) Name and place of the forum Relevant legal provision under which the matter in the problem is filed

c) Name of the parties and their status

d) Memorial on behalf of the Petitioner/Respondent.

6.5 Citation of the memorials shall be done in a Uniform style.

6.6 Explanatory or Illustrative Footnotes are not allowed.

6.7 Every memorial shall comply with the formatting rules as given in Table 2.
7. PENALTIES

7.1 The deductions on the non-compliant nature of a Memorial or memorial’s ingredients shall be
according to Table 3.

7.2 The memorials shall be accepted after the date and time mentioned in Rule 5.1, till the passage of 24
hours, i.e., till 11:59 PM on 18th September, 2023, but with deductions as prescribed in Table 3. No
memorials shall be accepted after the lapse of this time period, and the defaulting team shall be
immediately disqualified.

7.3 There shall be a Penalty cap of 15 per memorial.

8. EVALUATION OF THE MEMORIALS

8.1 Every Memorial will be marked on a scale of 100.

8.2 The Memorial shall be evaluated according to the following criteria:

a) Knowledge of Law and Facts: 20 Marks

b) Proper and Articulate Analysis: 15 Marks

c) Depth and Use of Research: 15 Marks

d) Organisation, Presentation and Overall Formatting: 15 Marks

e) Novelty of arguments: 15 Marks

f) Grammar and Language: 10 Marks

g) Clarity of Thought and Originality: 10 Marks

9. EXCHANGE OF MEMORIALS

9.1 There shall be an exchange of memorials between the respective opposing Teams, in accordance with
the fixtures as determined by seeding, prior to all the Rounds.

10. RESEARCHERS’ TEST

10.1 The Researcher of every team shall have to appear for a Researchers’ Test, which shall be held on
20th September, 2023.
10.2Use of any unfair means during the Test shall amount to disqualification of the team from the
University Moot Court Selections, 2023.

10.3 No Team will qualify for a rank if the Researcher fails to appear for the Researchers’ Test.

10.4 Evaluation of Researchers’ Test shall be out of a score of 100.

11. ORAL SUBMISSIONS

11.1 There shall be the following rounds: -

a) Two Preliminary Rounds (Distributed across suitable number of sessions)

b) Quarter Final Rounds

c) Semi Final Rounds

d) Final Round

11.2 Each team shall argue as the Petitioner and the Respondent, once in the preliminary rounds.

11.3 Teams shall not disclose, in any manner whatsoever, for the entire duration of the Rounds, their
identities, even if asked by the judges.

11.4 Passing of Compendiums is at the discretion of the judges.

11.5 Delay in appearance for a round for more than five (5) minutes will render disqualification of the
Speaker for that round at the discretion of the judges. In such a case, their Opponent shall make their
oral submissions Ex-parte.

11.6 The time limit for the oral submissions in the Preliminary Rounds and the Quarter Final Rounds
will be thirty (30) minutes for each Team, including the time for Rebuttals and Sur-rebuttals.
Exceeding the limit shall be penalized heavily. No speaker can speak for more than fifteen (15)
minutes. No team shall be allowed more than five (5) minutes for Rebuttal or Sur-Rebuttal. Time
extensions may be given to each team at the discretion of the Judges. The Judges shall endeavour to
ensure that both teams get an opportunity to speak for the same amount of time.

11.7 The time limit for the oral submissions in the Semi Final rounds and the Final round will be forty-
five (45) minutes for each Team, including the time for Rebuttals and Sur-Rebuttals. No speaker can
speak for more than twenty-five (25) minutes. No team shall be allowed more than ten (10) minutes for
rebuttal or sur-rebuttal. Time extensions may be given to each team at the discretion of the Judges. The
Judges shall endeavour to ensure that both teams get an opportunity to speak for the same amount of
time.
12. STRUCTURE OF THE ORAL ROUNDS

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

conducted physically in the University.

12.2 Preliminary Rounds

12.2.1 In the preliminary rounds, each team shall have to argue twice, once as the Petitioner and once
as the Respondent.

12.2.2 The teams 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 team based on their Total Memorial
Score. The teams will be ranked on the basis of the Total Memorial Score (calculated out of 200).

12.2.3 These rounds shall be jumbled and divided into sessions.

12.2.4 No two teams will argue against each other more than once in the Preliminary Rounds.

12.2.5 For the Preliminary Rounds, the winner of each such round shall be determined on the basis of
the evaluation of the Speaker scores and Memorial scores, according to Rule 12.2.7.

12.2.6 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 scoresheet will be the winner on that judge’s score-sheet.

12.2.7 Each preliminary round will be decided on the basis of cumulative marks of orals as well as the
memorials. The weightage of the marks will be in the ratio of 7:3. This will imply that 70% of the
total oral score will be considered along with 30% of the memo score, the cumulative of which
will give the final score of a speaker for each round.

For Example- In a round between Team A and Team B, Panelist 1 gives a cumulative Oral score
of 75 marks to Team A and 65 marks to Team B. Panelist 2 gives a cumulative oral score of 72
marks to Participant A and 63 to Participant B. The cumulative memo score of Participant A is
150, and of Participant B is 140.

Team A: 70% of (75 +72= 147) + 30% of 150 = 147.9 [Final Score]

Team B: 70% of (65+ 63) + 30% of 140 = 131.6 [ Final Score]

 Here, the final score of Team A is greater than the final score of Team B and hence, Team A will
win this round.

If two or more teams have the same final score, then the team with higher cumulative speaker scores
shall be ranked higher.

12.3 Quarter Final Rounds

12.3.1 The highest ranked eight (8) teams from the Preliminary Rounds, as determined by the Rules
12.2 stated above, shall qualify for the Quarter Final Rounds.

12.3.2 The eight (8) teams 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 Round II)

Rank 3 v. Rank 6 (Quarter Final Round III)

Rank 4 v. Rank 5 (Quarter Final Round IV)

12.3.3 Four (4) teams shall qualify for the Semi Final Rounds on a knock-out basis, that is, the winner
of each Quarter Final Round shall qualify for the Semi Final Rounds. The knockouts will be
decided on the total marks received by the team in the round. The team with more marks shall
proceed to the next round.

12.4 Semi Final Rounds

12.4.1 The four (4) teams that proceed to the Semi-final Rounds, as determined by Rule 12.3.3 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 as follows:

Rank 1 v. Rank 4 (Semi Final Round I)

 Rank 2 v. Rank 3 (Semi Final Round II)

12.4.2 Two (2) teams shall qualify for the Final Round on a knock-out basis, that is, the winner of each
Semi-Final Round shall qualify to the Final Round. The knockouts will be decided on the total
marks received by the team in the round. The team with more marks shall proceed to the next
round.

12.5 Final Round

12.5.1 The two (2) teams that proceed to the Final Round, as determined by Rule 12.4.2 stated above,
shall each argue only once for the side allotted by a draw of lots.

12.5.2 The team that wins the Final Round shall be declared as the ‘Winning Team’. The other team
shall be declared as the ‘Runner-Up Team’.

12.5.3 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 team that won the round according to that judge. The
benchstrength for the Final Round shall be an odd number but not one (1).

13. EVALUATION OF THE ORAL ROUNDS

13.1 The Oral Rounds shall be evaluated out of a total score of 200 (100 for each Speaker) for each

round.

13.2 Evaluation shall be done based on the following criteria:

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

b) Application of Law to Facts: 20 Marks

c) Ingenuity & Ability to Answer Questions: 20 Marks

d) Time Management and Organization: 20 Marks

e) Style, Courtesy and Demeanor: 10 Marks

f) Effective Rebuttals: 10 Marks (Rebuttals shall be delivered by one Speaker, and both speakers shall
be awarded the same marks for the rebuttal.)
13.3 Tick System

Each Judge in the preliminary round shall award a tick if he/she finds that a team is capable of
representing the University in National Moots. A minimum of three ticks are required by the team for it
to be allotted a national moot in case of a division bench and 4 ticks in case of a bench strength of 3
judges, failing which the team shall not be allotted a National Moot.

All Quarter-finalists shall be given moots irrespective of ticks.

14. COMPENDIUM

14.1 Participants are required to email their compendiums (if any) to rmlumcs@gmail.com by 07:59 PM
(19:59 Hours) on 22nd September, 2023. The Organizers will vetthe same, ensure all marks revealing
the name of the institution are removed and replyback with the approval. These compendiums will be
provided to the judges prior to each hearing only if the judges allow. Participants are encouraged
to create a Table of Contents hyperlinking all the authorities they are using for ease of reference.

15. SCOUTING

15.1 Scouting shall be deemed to have happened if the participants are found:

a) Witnessing, hearing, observing, etc., the oral submissions in a round, except where the round is one
in which the team to which he/she is affiliated is participating in; or

b) Reading a Memorial of a team except where it is of the team to which he/she is affiliated, or the
memorials have been obtained on account of an exchange of memorials prior to a Round of the team to
which he/she is affiliated.

16. MISCELLANEOUS

16.1 All communications made to the MCC shall be on the same thread of the mailrequesting for
registration of the team for the 14th University Moot Court Selections. Requests or submissions from
any other thread would not be entertained.

16.2 The MCC reserves the right to amend, alter, vary or change the Rulesgoverning the competition,
which would be communicated to the teams within a reasonable period of time.

16.3 In case of any dispute not covered by the above-mentioned rules, MCC shall be the final arbiter.

16.4 Notwithstanding anything provided in Rule 16.2, The Chairperson of the MCC of RMLNLU
shall be the highest authority as regards dispute resolution in casethe team/participant is not satisfied
with the MCC’s decision. Any such decision madeby him on any issue/dispute arising in relation to
the Competition shall be final and binding on all concerned.

For any queries, please send an e-mail to – rmlumcs@gmail.com

 APPENDIX

Table 1 – Page Limit

Head Page Limit

Cover Page 1

Table of Contents 2

List of abbreviations 1

Index of Authorities 5

Statement of Jurisdiction 1

Statement of Facts 2

Statement of Issues 1

Summary of Arguments 2

Arguments Advanced 20

Prayer 1

Table 2 – Formatting Specifications

Head Formatting Specifications

Page Size A4

Font type Times New Roman

Line Spacing 1.5

Margins 1 inch or 2.54 cm on each side

Font Size 12

Footnote Font Size 10

Footnote Line Spacing 1

Footnote Font Type Times New Roman

Table 3 – Penalties

Head Penalty

Late Submission of Memorial 1 mark per memorial per 12 hours

Exceeding page limit as given in Table 1 1 mark per exceeding page

Failure to comply with any or all of the 1 mark per violation

provisions of Rule 6.4

Failure to comply with formatting 1 mark per violation

specifications mentioned in Table 2 as per

Rule 6.6

Failure to include any or more than one or 2 marks per non-inclusion

all of the heads mentioned in Table 1

Failure to comply with Rule 5.2, i.e., 2 marks per memorial

submission of memo in single file and not

indifferent files

Failure to comply with Rule 6.3, i.e., the 1 mark per memorial

colour scheme given for the cover page