MNLU Nagpur Hosts 2nd National Moot Court Competition

The proposition stimulated discussion over contemporary issues pertaining to regulation of decryption technology. The central question in the problem sought to be argued by the participants was about the conundrum of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 allegedly infringing upon the fundamental rights of the citizens of India. Other issues in the proposition included aspects of immunity emanating from parliamentary privileges, data privacy and freedom of speech and expression.

The second edition of the competition, which was conducted in the offline mode, witnessed participation from more than thirty law schools across the country with only twenty teams being selected for the offline oral rounds conducted in offline mode which followed the memorial round. The bench for the final round was a five-judge bench graced with the presence of eminent personalities from the legal industry and comprised of Justice G.A. Sanap, Judge, Bombay High Court (Bench at Nagpur); Sr. Adv. Ganapati Hegde (Partner, Dua Associates); Adv. Sangram Sirpurkar (Advocate at Bombay High Court); Ms. Veena Sivaramakrishnan (Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.); and Mr. Abhinav Maker (Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.).

In the end, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, was declared the winner and won prize money of INR 21,000/-. SKVM Pravin Gandhi College of Law, Mumbai, was declared as the runners-up and were awarded prize money of INR 15,000/- along with the trophy. The best speaker overall from the preliminary rounds was from Symbiosis Law School NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh and the best memorial prize was awarded to the team representing O.P. Jindal Global University, Haryana. The Best Researcher award was awarded to the researcher from the team representing Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai. All of these winners also received a cash prize of INR 7,000 each as well.