THE 15TH

NALSAR – JUSTICE B.R. SAWHNY

MEMORIAL MOOT COURT
COMPETITION 2022

RULE BOOK

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 CONTENTS
I. ORGANIZATION OF THE COMPETITION 3
1. ADMINISTRATION 3
2. LANGUAGE 3
3. STRUCTURE OF THE COMPETITION 3
4. INTERPRETATION OF RULES 3
II. PARTICIPATION AND ELIGIBILITY 4
5. ADMINISTRATION 4
6. TEAM COMPOSITION 4
7. REGISTRATION 4
8. PAYMENT OF REGISTRATION FEE 5
III. CLARIFICATIONS 6
IV. MEMORIAL EVALUATION ROUND 6
9. MEMORIAL SUBMISSION 6
10. MEMORIAL FORMAT 6
11. MEMORIAL CONTENT 7
12. MEMORIAL EVALUATION 8
13. QUALIFICATION OF MEMORIALS 8
V. ORAL ROUND PROCEDURES 8
14. GENERAL PROCEDURE 8
15. PROCEDURES FOR ORAL SUBMISSIONS 9
16. PRELIMINARY ROUNDS 10
17. QUARTER–FINALS 11
18. SEMI–FINALS 12
19. FINALS 12
VI. RESEARCHER’S TEST 12
VII. AWARDS 12
VIII. SCOUTING 13
IX. ANONYMITY 13
X. DECISION OF THE JUDGES SHALL BE FINAL 13
XI. ACCOMMODATION, FOOD AND TRANSPORT 13
XII. MISCELLANEOUS 13
CLARIFICATIONS REGARDING THE COMPETITION CAN BE SOUGHT FROM 15

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 I. ORGANIZATION OF THE COMPETITION

1. ADMINISTRATION

a. The NALSAR–B.R. Sawhny Memorial Moot Court Competition shall be administered

by NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India.

b. The Competition is scheduled to be held between 14th and 16th October 2022 in offline
format.

c. Professor Balakista Reddy, Registrar, NALSAR University of Law shall be the

‘National Coordinator’ of the Competition.

2. LANGUAGE

All oral and written submissions are required to be made in English, which shall be the official
language of the competition.

3. STRUCTURE OF THE COMPETITION

a. The Competition shall comprise of two stages.

i Stage I shall be the Memorial Elimination Round. This shall be open to all teams
which register for the competition. The results of this round shall be based on
evaluation of memorials and shall determine the 24 teams which will proceed to Stage
II.

ii Stage II: Oral Rounds

The teams which qualify Stage I shall be eligible to participate in the Oral
Rounds which shall comprise of Preliminary Rounds and Advanced Rounds viz.
Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals.

4. INTERPRETATION OF RULES
The National Coordinator shall serve as the final arbiter of the implementation and
interpretation of the Rules.

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 II. PARTICIPATION AND ELIGIBILITY

5. ADMINISTRATION

a. The Competition is open to students currently enrolled in LL.B. Degree Courses (3 year/5
year) or LLM Postgraduate Degree Courses.

b. A team is not permitted to have members from more than one institution.

c. No more than one team may represent an institution.

6. TEAM COMPOSITION

a. Each team shall comprise of a minimum of two members wherein both the members will
be required to perform the role of speaker.

b. Teams may comprise of a maximum of three members, wherein two members shall perform
the role of a speaker and one member shall perform the role of a researcher.

c. In case the team comprises of two members only (as mentioned in Rule 6a above), one of
the two members will be required to perform the role of a researcher in the researcher’s
test, in addition to both of them playing the role of a speaker.

d. The substitution of any Team Member is not allowed after the registration deadline except
in extenuating circumstances and only with permission of the organizers.

e. A researcher may be allowed to argue instead of a speaker only with the permission of the
court.

7. REGISTRATION

a. Procedure for Registration:

Interested teams are required to register for the Competition by filling the registration
form. The link to the form is here.

b. While filling the Registration Form, the teams have to choose a primary contact person,
alternatively called a ‘Point of Contact’ (“POC”). All communications concerning the
Competition will be sent by an e-mail to the nominated contact person.

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c. The nominated contact person shall be responsible to convey all the information to the team.
The teams are also required to mention the e-mail of either the respective committee or the
head/dean of the institution in the Registration Form.

d. After submission of the Registration Form, a mail confirming the provisional registration
will be sent to the respective committee or head/dean of the institution.

e. Prior payment of Registration Fees is required in order to fill the Final Registration Form.

f. The last date for completion of all the registration formalities is before 25th August 2022
(11:59 P.M. IST)

g. The confirmation of Registration will be notified to the teams by the Organizers, after the
completion and verification of all the Registration formalities.

h. The team will also be provided with a Team Code. In any stage of the competition, a team
must be identified only by the allotted team-code.

i. All team members must refrain from disclosing the identity of their institution at any time in
any manner during the course of their participation in the competition. Non-compliance to
this rule shall lead to severe penalty or disqualification as determined by the organizers. The
decision of the National Coordinator in this regard shall be final.

8. PAYMENT OF REGISTRATION FEE

a. All the teams shall be required to make a payment of INR 6,500 via online bank
transfer in order to register for the competition. Details of the same must also be
attached in the registration form.

b. The account details are:

Beneficiary Name: Registrar, NALSAR

Bank Name: Indian Bank
Branch Name: Shameerpet
Account No: 418454214
IFSC Code: IDIB000S166

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 III. CLARIFICATIONS

For the purpose of seeking clarifications, participants can fill the google form using this link.
The deadline for sending clarifications is 11:59 PM IST, 25th August 2022. Answers to
clarifications sought shall be released on 1st September 2022

IV. MEMORIAL EVALUATION ROUND

9. MEMORIAL SUBMISSION

a. Every team which has successfully registered for the competition is required to prepare
two memorials:

● Memorial on behalf of the Petitioner(s)

● Memorial on behalf of the Respondent(s)

b. All teams are required to send soft copies of their memorials for Stage I: Memorial
Elimination Round before 17th September 2022 (11:59 P.M. IST) to
[email protected] via mail with the Subject “Memorials (Team Code) – NALSAR
BRS Moot Court Competition 2022”.

c. A penalty of 1 point per hour on each memorial shall be imposed for any submission
made post the deadline specified. Memorials submitted 12 hours beyond the deadline
specified shall not be evaluated.

d. The memorials which are submitted for the memorial elimination round shall be
considered final. After the completion of the Competition, the Organizers reserve the
right to use the memorials as they deem appropriate.

10. MEMORIAL FORMAT

a. All soft copies of the Memorial submitted must be in Microsoft Word Document format
(.doc/.docx). The teams are allowed to submit the PDF format along with the MS Word
Document format, but not solely.

b. Each memorial should be contained in a single file with the name of the file being the
allocated team code followed by the first letter of the party whose arguments are
presented in that Memorial, i.e., an ‘R’ for Respondent(s) and ‘P’ for Petitioner(s). For
instance, the respondent(s) memorial of team code 10 should be named as ‘10R’.

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 c. All pages of the Memorial must be of A4 size, with 1-inch margin on each side.

d. The font style and size of the text of all parts of the Memorial, excluding the Cover
Page shall be Times New Roman, size 12, 1.5-line spacing. The Footnotes shall be in
Times New Roman, size 10, single (1) line spacing.

e. Penalties
i Non-compliance with sub-rule (a) and (b) shall result in a penalty of 5 points.
ii Non-compliance with sub-rule (c) and (d) shall result in a penalty of 1 point per page.
iii There shall be a cap on maximum penalties which shall not transcend 20 points in
any case.

11. MEMORIAL CONTENT

a. The Memorials are required to contain the following sections:

i Cover Page
ii Table of Contents
iii Table of Abbreviations
iv Index of Authorities
v Statement of Jurisdiction
vi Statement of Facts
vii Issues Raised
viii Summary of Arguments
ix Arguments Advanced
x Prayer

b. The section on Arguments Advanced shall not exceed 30 pages. Non-compliance shall
result in a penalty of 1 point for every additional page.

c. The memorial as a whole shall not exceed 50 pages including the cover page. Non-
compliance shall result in a penalty of 3 points for every additional page.

d. The citation format should follow the 20th edition of the Bluebook. Speaking footnotes
and endnotes are not allowed. Non-compliance shall result in a penalty of 1 point for
each error.

e. The Cover page of the memorial must contain the team registration code in the upper
right-hand corner, followed by a ‘P’ for the Petitioner(s) Memorial, or an ‘R’ for the
Respondent(s) Memorial. Non-compliance shall result in a penalty of 2 points.

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12. MEMORIAL EVALUATION

Each Memorial shall be evaluated out of 200 points by an evaluator. The criteria for evaluation
are as follows:
Parameter Maximum Points

Knowledge of Law and Facts 50 Points

Proper and Articulate Analysis 50 Points

Extent and Use of Research 40 Points

Clarity and Organization 40 Points

Grammar and Style 20 Points

13. QUALIFICATION OF MEMORIALS

a. After evaluation of the memorials submitted, the top 24 teams on the basis of their total
scores in Stage I: Memorial Elimination Round shall qualify to Stage II: Oral Rounds.

b. The results of Stage I: Memorial Elimination Round shall be declared on 2nd October
2022.

c. The teams that qualify Stage I will be required to confirm their participation in Stage II
by filling the confirmation form sent to them by an e-mail before 3rd October 2022
(11:59 P.M. IST). In the event where a team fails to confirm participation within the
specified timeline, invitations to other teams will be issued on the basis of the scores of
Stage I by 5th October, 2022.

V. ORAL ROUND PROCEDURES

14. GENERAL PROCEDURE

a. The oral rounds shall be conducted physically at the campus premises of NALSAR
University and comprise of preliminary rounds, quarterfinals, semi-finals and final
rounds.

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 b. The preliminary rounds shall consist of Preliminary Round-I (“Prelim-I”) and
Preliminary Round-II (“Prelim-II”)

c. The team representing the Petitioner(s) shall submit their arguments first, followed
by the team representing the Respondent. Upon completion of the arguments, the
Applicant shall have the option of submitting rebuttals, followed by the Respondent.
Sur-rebuttals shall/shall not be permitted, subject to the discretion of the judges.

d. The student counsels may state their names during the oral rounds but are not allowed
to reveal the name of institution, and must use the Team Code in all circumstances
otherwise.

e. The memorials shall be exchanged after the Inaugural Ceremony for the preliminary
rounds. Memorial exchange for further rounds shall be done a reasonable time ahead
of each advanced round, as the OC decides.

15. PROCEDURES FOR ORAL SUBMISSIONS

a. Each team will be allotted 30 minutes to present their case. This shall include time allotted
for arguments advanced, rebuttals and sur-rebuttals.

b. The division of time between the two speakers is up to the discretion of the team, however,
each speaker must speak for a minimum of 10 minutes.

c. Before the Oral Round begins, the team must inform the manner in which the team wishes
to divide its total time between its (i) first speaker, (ii) second speaker, and (iii) the rebuttal
(for Petitioner) or surrebuttal (for Respondent).

d. The oral arguments should not extend beyond the issues in the memorials.

e. The researchers are also required to attend the oral rounds.

f. Dressing: The Participants may be dressed in a formal courtroom attire. If any participant
cannot access formal dress code, they may be allowed to be dressed in appropriate formal
outfit which can be reasonably considered to the occasion. No marks shall be reduced for
not wearing a full formal courtroom attire.

g. It is not mandatory to submit a compendium, but if you do so it is mandatory to do so in

a PDF format and the guidelines for it are:

To avoid unnecessary bulk, it is required that in the compendium for the book/case
or any other resource that you are citing, you shall have the first page of the resource
and the relevant pages only. For example: if you are citing a paragraph(s) from a

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 case say X v. Y, for this part of the compendium you should have the first page of
the case, followed by relevant pages.

The responsibility of making a coherent, accessible compendium folder lies with

the teams. An index for the compilation (at the beginning of the file/folder) is also
mandated.

The teams are required to name their files in the following format: C- ‘Team Code’-
Side. For example, the Respondent compendium of team code 10 should be named
as ‘C10R’.

The organizing committee bears no responsibility due to any issues caused to judges
in finding a relevant document or page.

h. Maximum marks for the oral rounds shall be 100 marks per speaker per judge.

i. The oral rounds shall be evaluated out of 100 marks and the basis for evaluation shall be
as follows:
Parameter Maximum Marks

Knowledge of Law 20 Marks

Application of Law to Facts 20 Marks

Ingenuity and Ability to Answer 20 Marks

Style, Poise, Courtesy and Demeanour 20 Marks

Time management 10 Marks

Organization 10 Marks

j. The decision of the judges with regard to the outcome of the rounds shall be final.

16. PRELIMINARY ROUNDS

a. All the teams that qualify Stage I: Memorial Evaluation Round shall be eligible to
participate in the preliminary rounds.

b. There shall be two preliminary rounds. Each team shall argue in both the rounds, once as
Petitioner(s) and once as Respondent.

c. In the Preliminary rounds, the memorial scores of the teams will be used to determine the
match-ups; a power match-up system (Team 1 v Team 24, Team 2 v Team 23…) and a
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 slide match-up system (Team 1 v Team 13, Team 2 v Team 14…) shall be used for the
first and the second round respectively.

d. Each round shall be decided through the allocation of a total of 6 round points, with all
points being awarded on the basis of the Oral Scores of the teams.

e. A bench of two-judges will judge each round in the Preliminary Rounds.

f. No team shall face the same bench more than once in the preliminary rounds.

g. A total of 3 points per judge will be allocated for the Preliminary Rounds. For each judge,
if the cumulative Oral Score of one Team exceeds the cumulative Oral Score of the other
Team by 10% of the higher cumulative Oral Score, then the Team with the higher
cumulative Oral Score will be awarded 3 points and the other team with 0 points. If such
difference is less than 10%, then the Team with the higher score will be awarded 2 points
and the other Team will be awarded 1 point. In the case of a tie, the teams will be awarded
1.5 points each for that judge.

Example: In a round between Team A and Team B, Judge 1 gives a cumulative Oral
Score (Speaker 1 + Speaker 2) of 170 marks to Team A and 165 marks to Team B. The
difference is 5 marks. Since this difference is less than 10% of 170 (which is 17) for
Judge 1, Team A will be awarded 2 points and Team B will be awarded 1 point. In the
same round, if Judge 2 gives a cumulative Oral Score of 155 marks to Team A and 175
marks to Team B. Here, the difference of 20 marks is more than 10% of 175 (which is
17.5) and hence, Team A will be awarded 0 points and Team B will be awarded 3 point.
In the same round, say if Judge 1 or 2 gives a cumulative Oral Score of 155 marks to
Team A and 155 marks to Team B. Here, both the teams will be awarded 1.5 points.
The total round points for that round will be: Team A: 2 (Judge1) + 0 (Judge 2) + 1.5
(judge3) = 3.5 Points and Team B: 1(Judge1) + 3 (Judge 2) + 1.5 (judge 3) = 5.5 points.
On adding the points given by each respective judge, the total team score shall be
derived.

h. The marks given by all the judges will be cumulatively added to determine the Best
Speaker.

17. QUARTER–FINALS

a. Top 8 teams with the most points shall qualify in the Quarter-finals. In case of any tie,
the memorial marks shall be referred.

b. For the Quarter Final Rounds, the rankings of the Preliminary Rounds shall be used for
the match - ups (Team 1 v. Team 5; Team 2 v. Team 6; Team 3 v. Team 7; Team 4 v.
Team 8).

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18. SEMI–FINALS

a. The winning Team in each of the four Quarter Final Rounds shall advance to the
Semi Final Rounds.

b. In Semi Final Rounds, the pairings shall be as follows, with reference to the match
numbers: the winner of Match 1 versus the winner of Match 4; and the winner of
Match 2 versus the winner of Match 3.

19. FINALS
The winning team from each of the two semi-final rounds shall advance to the final round. The
winner of the final round shall be declared the winner of the competition.

VI. RESEARCHER’S TEST

The researcher’s test is conducted for the assessment of researcher from each team who is
required to appear for the same. In case the team comprises of two members only, one of the
two members will be required to perform the role of a researcher in the researcher’s test, in
addition to both of them playing the role of a speaker. The researcher scoring the highest in
researcher’s test shall be chosen as the Best Researcher.

VII. AWARDS

a. Winning Team Award: The winning team will receive a trophy and cash prize of INR
50,000.
b. Runners-Up Team Award: The runners-up team will receive a trophy and cash prize of INR
25,000.
c. Best Speaker will receive a trophy and cash prize of INR 10,000.
d. Second-Best Speaker will receive cash prize of INR 7,500.
e. The team with the Best Memorial-Petitioner(s) will receive a trophy and a cash prize of
INR
f. 10,000.
g. The team with the Best Memorial –Respondent will receive a trophy and a cash prize of
h. INR 10,000.
i. Best Researcher will receive a cash prize of INR 10,000.
j. Second-Best Researcher will receive a cash prize of INR 7,500.
k. All participating teams will be provided with a certificate of participation or a certificate of
merit, in accordance with the performance of the team.

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 VIII. SCOUTING

(a) Teams shall not be allowed to observe the orals of another team, unless they have been
officially knocked-out of the competition. Scouting is strictly prohibited. Scouting by any
team shall entail instant disqualification.

IX. ANONYMITY
(a) The student counsels may state their names during the oral rounds, and must use the Team
Code. All team members must refrain from disclosing the identity of their institution at any
time and in any manner, during the course of their participation in the competition.
(b) Non-compliance with this Rule will result in immediate disqualification of the team. The
decision of the National Coordinator in this regard shall be final.

X. DECISION OF THE JUDGES SHALL BE

FINAL

The decision of the judges with regard to the outcome of the rounds shall be final.

XI. ACCOMMODATION, FOOD AND TRANSPORT

(a) Accommodation and food shall be provided to all teams by NALSAR University of Law
from the evening of 14th October 2022 to the noon/evening of 16th October 2022.
(b) The Travel Details Form must be duly filled and sent by the teams shortlisted for Stage-II
whenever sent by the organisers.

XII. MISCELLANEOUS
(a) All rules are subject to changes as the OC might deem fit to introduce at any stage of the
competition.

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(b) Communication made through any channel having official nature and attribution to the
organising committee shall be considered intimation. Teams are requested to be cognisant
of any announcements we make, therefore.

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 CLARIFICATIONS REGARDING THE
COMPETITION CAN BE SOUGHT FROM

REGARDING MOOT PROCEDURE AND PROPOSITION:

Bhavya Adhana, Moot Court Committee; Ph. +91-8447781602
Mayank Kumar, Moot Court Committee; Ph. +91- 9708432747

REGARDING ACCOMMODATION AND TRAVEL:

Mayank Kumar, Core OC; Ph. +91- 9708432747
Nupur Barman, OC Member; Ph. +91-7340069119
Kshipra Shukla, OC Member; Ph. +91-9752202424

GENERAL QUERIES AND GRIEVANCES:

Surbhi Pareek, Head, OC, Ph. +91-9460248432
Rishabh Shah, Treasurer, Ph. +91-9799143100
Tanvi Chhabra, Core OC, Ph. +91-8427093164
Vikrant Saraf, Core OC, Ph. +91-8059020923

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