PGCL: SAARC International Moot Court Competition, 2022

SVKM's Pravin Gandhi College of Law (PGCL) hosted it's 2nd PGCL SAARC International Moot Court Competition, 2022 (the Competition) spanning over a period of four days beginning from 10^th February 2022 to 13^th February 2022.

It was organized by the Moot Court Society of PGCL on a virtual platform. Our knowledge partner for the event was MZM Legal LLP. They drafted the proposition based on International Criminal Law which pertained to the theme of Humanitarian Refugee Crisis. Further, Mr. Parvez Menon (Senior Partner) and Mr. Waseem Pangarkar (Senior Partner) graced their presence to judge the finals rounds. Mr. Abhishek Gupta (Associate Parnter) and Mr. Chirag Naik (Principal Associate) were judges for the semi final rounds and Ms. Nadiya Sarguroh (Principal Associate), Ms. Drishti Singh (Senior Associate), Mr. Swapnil Srivastava (Associate) were the judges for the quarter final rounds.

A total of 18 teams participated in the Competition, out of which 6 were international teams from the various SAARC nation states of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, amongst others. The rest were national teams from various National Law Schools and other institutions.

UBR Legal Advocates and Vakils Associated were the Associate Partners of the Competition, in addition Manupatra and LawSkills were the Online Research Partners.

On 10^th February 2022 Preliminary Round 1 took place, followed by, Preliminary Round 2 that took place on 11^th February 2022. The 12^th February 2022 saw the 8 Quarter Finalists pleading their case from both sides in the first half of the day. Furthermore, as the sun set and twilight fell, the 4 Semi-Finalists presented a scintillating performance before the bench. Finally,2 of the best teams proceeded for the Final Rounds.

The Competition was a little unique than the other moot court competitions, in a way that, in every round of the Competition, the qualifying teams had to argue from both sides. Even in the Final Rounds, the Finalists presented their case once as the Prosecution in Final Round 1 and as the Defendant in Final Round 2.

The two teams that went against each other in the Final Rounds were School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be University, Bangalore) and Symbiosis Law School, Pune. Final Round 1 was judged by Mr. Chinmoy Sharma (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India), Mr.Vikramjit Banerjee (Additional Solicitor General of India) Mr. Shashi P. Singh (Additional Solicitor General of India and Allahabad HC) Mr. Pradeep Rai (Senior Advocate and Vice President, Supreme Court Bar Association) and Mr. Waseem Pangarkar (Senior Partner, MZM Legal LLP)

For Final Round 2 the bench comprised of Sr. Adv. Pravin Parekh (Padma Shri and President, Indian Society of International Affairs), Sr. Adv. Geeta Luthra (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India), Mr. M. B. Nargund (Additional Solicitor General of India, Karnataka HC), Mr. Ashok Mehta (Former Additional Solicitor General of India, Allahabad HC) and Mr. Parvez Menon (Senior Partner, MZM Legal LLP)

Eventually, the team comprising of Miss. Aditi B Madhusudan, Miss. Deepshika P and Mr. Harit Narang from Christ University secured the 1^st position which was followed by Miss. Anshita Shrivastava, Miss. Sanjhali Bajaj and Miss. Divya Joshi who secured the Runners up position. An Award for the Best Spirit of the Competition was introduced for international team that scored the highest in the Preliminary Rounds. The Best Spirit was bagged by London College of Legal Studies, Bangladesh.

Lastly, the unending support received from our Principal Dr. Navasikha Duara, Faculty-in-charge of the Moot Court Society Dr. Geeta Kubsad and the college at large were the strong pillars that stood with the entire Organizing Committee.