VGU R.K. Rastogi Memorial Negotiation Competition 2026 To Be Held On October 24-25; Registrations Open

Those who appeared against him called him a master of facts. Justice V.S. Dave gave him several pages in his biography. He was known for the trouble he took over his juniors, one of whom, Mr. Justice D.P. Gupta, went on to become Chief Justice of the High Court of Rajasthan. He is one of only three advocates of Rajasthan to find mention and a place in the Rajasthan High Court Museum at Jaipur, and the Bar Council of Rajasthan continues to hold the R.K. Rastogi Memorial Law Lecture in his honour.

A lawyer remembered for mastery of facts and for the care he gave to those learning the work is a fitting name for a competition about listening closely and negotiating well.

About Shri Rajdeepak Rastogi

The competition is organised in collaboration with Shri Rajdeepak Rastogi, Senior Advocate and Former Additional Solicitor General of India, who has supported it from its first edition and serves as Patron of the event. His association has given the competition its continuity.

About the Department of Law, Vivekananda Global University

At the Department of Law, Vivekananda Global University, Jaipur our focus is to develop and advance interdisciplinary legal education and scholarship. We challenge normative pedagogy and believe in establishing and implementing new approaches to teaching and learning, an approach that carried the University to NAAC A+ accreditation within a decade of its inception.

The programmes are approved by the Bar Council of India. The Faculty is ranked 2^nd in Rajasthan and 29^th in India for Law in the Outlook Best College Rankings, and 66^th in India by India Today. In the GU World Subject Rankings 2026 the University placed 25^th in India and 628^th in the world for Law and Humanities.

As a research-oriented institute we encourage unrestricted academic imagination, in the belief that thinking outside the box leads to original and impactful work. We incubate research across a wide range of ideas, including intellectual property, constitutional law and criminal law, and that research has been recognised on numerous occasions.

Teaching here does not stop at the classroom. The Department runs moot court competitions, trial advocacy and ADR training, a legal aid clinic and community outreach, and it hosts the VGU Ranka Moot Court Competition, which in 2026 reached its fifth edition and drew 60+ teams from law schools across the country.

Since our inception in 2013 our students have gone on to academia, legal practice, the administrative services and entrepreneurship. That is a testament to their drive and intellect, and to our own sincerity and diligence. We value diversity of thought, opinion and expression, and we believe educational institutions should be fair and inclusive spaces that help everyone reach their potential.

About Vivekananda Global University, Jaipur

Vivekananda Global University is a multidisciplinary State Private University established under Act 11 of 2012 of the Government of Rajasthan and covered under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956. It is accredited NAAC A+ and teaches across fourteen faculties, at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level, to students drawn from across the Indian subcontinent and some twenty countries.

In the QS Asia University Rankings 2026 the University was placed 666^th in Asia, 200th in South Asia and 95^th in India, entering the top hundred Indian universities for the first time. It was ranked in the 151–200 band of the NIRF India Rankings 2025. The WEEK placed it 8^th in the North Zone and 14^th in India, and Outlook 11^th among private universities. It has also been recognised by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of MSME, NITI Aayog, SIDBI, National Human Rights Commission, Competition Commission of India, Indian Council for Social Science Research, the Department of Science and Technology, and ASSOCHAM.

Beyond the rankings, the University has built an unusually active research and innovation culture for an institution of its age, with an on-campus incubator, hundreds of patents filed, and partnerships including Rajasthan's first Generative AI Campus with Google Cloud.

The campus at Jagatpura, Jaipur, hosts the competition.

About the Alternative Dispute Resolution Cell

The ADR Cell of the Department of Law exists on a simple premise: most disputes are not resolved by judgment. They are settled, mediated, arbitrated, or negotiated away, often by lawyers who were never taught how. The Cell is the Department's answer to that gap.

It runs the training, workshops and simulation exercises through which our students learn to negotiate, mediate and arbitrate, and it prepares and sends teams to ADR competitions across the country. Its flagship undertaking is this competition, which the Cell has organised every year since 2023 and which now brings teams from law schools across India to Jaipur each year.

What the Cell teaches is not a softer version of advocacy. It is a different discipline, with its own rigour, and it asks students to do the harder thing: to understand what the other side actually needs, and to build something both sides can sign.

About the Competition

The competition is held in memory of Late Shri R.K. Rastogi. It gives law students from across the country a place to practise and improve their negotiation skills, and it is built to simulate the way legal negotiations actually run, which makes it particularly useful for students who intend to work in dispute resolution.

There is no memorial to write and nothing to submit in advance. Teams of two appear as client and counsel, receive facts known to both sides and instructions known only to their own, and have to do the work in the room, under time, in front of judges who will afterwards ask them why they moved when they did. Participants exchange the roles of client and counsel between rounds, so that each of them takes a turn at both.

Since 2023 the competition has grown into one of the larger negotiation events in the country, and it has drawn to Jaipur a remarkable body of judges and speakers. Successive editions have been graced by Learned Judges of the Supreme Court of India: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Pankaj Mithal, Hon'ble Mr. Justice J.K. Maheshwari, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Augustine George Masih, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Ajay Rastogi and Hon'ble Mr. Justice Dinesh Maheshwari.

From the High Court of Rajasthan we have hosted Learned Chief Justices and Judges: Hon'ble Mr. Justice M.M. Shrivastava, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma, Hon'ble Mr. Justice P.K. Lohra, Hon'ble Mr. Justice N.K. Jain, Hon'ble Mr. Justice G.K. Vyas, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Goverdhan Bardhar, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Ashok Kumar Gaur, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Pankaj Bhandari, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sudesh Bansal, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sameer Jain, and Professor (Dr.) S. Sivakumar, Senior Professor at the Indian Law Institute and former Member of the Law Commission of India.

Alongside them, senior advocates and practitioners have sat as judges in the negotiation rounds themselves, which is where most participants say they learn the most.

Eligibility

All students who are enrolled in a full-time integrated or graduate law programme as on 31^st July 2026 will be eligible to participate.

Team Composition

Each team will consist of two members. One member shall be designated as the 'client' and the other member shall be designated as the 'counsel'. Members in a particular team will have to mandatorily reverse roles in Preliminary Round II, i.e. the client in Preliminary Round I will serve as the counsel in Preliminary Round II. Team Members are free to choose roles in the subsequent rounds.

Location

The Competition will be held in offline mode at Vivekananda Global University Campus, Jaipur (Rajasthan).

Important Dates

· 11th October 2026 – Closing of Team Registrations

· 17th October 2026 – Deadline for seeking clarifications

· 23rd October 2026 – Registration, Teams Briefing, and Draw of Lots

· 24th October 2026 – Inaugural Ceremony, Preliminary Rounds, and Quarter-Final Rounds

· 25th October 2026 – Semi-Final Rounds, Final Round, and Valedictory Ceremony

The participants will be informed sufficiently in advance if there is any change in the schedule.

Registration Link

https://vgu.ac.in/vgu-rk-rastogi-memorial-negotiation-competetion

Registration Fee

A registration fee of INR 6,000 per team with accommodation or a registration fee of INR 4,000 per team without accommodation will be charged in advance at the time of registration itself and has to be deposited online.

Prizes (Worth INR 1,00,000)

The winners will receive a trophy to be held in their university and a cash prize of INR 50,000. The runners-up will also receive a trophy and cash prize of INR 30,000. There will be an award and cash prize of INR 10,000 for the best negotiator. A spirit of the competition award and a cash prize of INR 10,000 will also be given to the team that best displays the qualities of good negotiation. All participants will receive certificates of participation.

Contact Information

Mr. Rahul Bishnoi (Faculty In Charge, ADR Cell): +91-8306672827

Dr. Garima Dhaka Sangwan (Member, ADR Cell): +91-6367562133

Dr. Saloni V. Bahl (Member, ADR Cell): +91-9783344222

Social Media

Instagram Handle: adrc_vgu