MOOT COURT

Date & Time

Saturday,15th February, 2020 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. (Preliminary)
Saturday,15th February, 2020 02:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. (Semi-finals)
Sunday, 16th February, 2020 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. (Finals)

The highlight of Lex Loci is the Moot Court Competition that holds the highest
rewards of the Fest. Mooting is thus, the pivotal part of Lex Loci that helps garner great
interest amongst the participants across the length and breadth of the country. The aim is to
help students enjoy and experience the practical aspects of legal studies as also to sharpen
their research and communication skills.

Lex Loci Moot Court Problem sets the stage alight to engage legal minds to dwell
upon crucial social issues that need to be addressed both on point of facts and law.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

1) Aarohi, a twenty year old girl, belonging to a lower middle class family, was pursuing her
studies in Chartered Accountancy in the City of Leebay. Her father used to work as a clerk in
a private firm and her mother was a housewife. She had always been a very bright and
ambitious student. To support her father, she used to take tuitions for school students.
Akshay, her Accounts teacher, secretly developed emotions for Aarohi. She had great
admiration and respect for Akshay as her teacher. On Aarohi’s birthday, Akshay organized a
party, when he gifted her an expensive watch. Unaware of his feelings, Aarohi accepted the
same.

2) On 11th January, 2013 Akshay approached Aarohi’s parents and asked for her hand in
marriage. However, they rejected the offer and warned him not to contact her henceforth, as
they did not approve of him since he was her teacher. They warned Aarohi not to meet
Akshay. Thereafter, she started avoiding Akshay. On one occasion Aarohi also made it clear
to Akshay that she will not go against her parents’ wishes and asked him not to follow her
anymore. Despite the warning, Akshay continued to follow her and tried to contact her
personally, through the phone and the internet. He believed that Aarohi was avoiding him
because she was pressurized into doing so.

3) Aarohi reported the same to her parents. Her parents gave an ultimatum to Akshay that if he
continued to repeat the unwarranted acts committed by him then they would be forced to take
sterner action against him. But, despite the warnings, Akshay continued to harass her and her
parents by continuously asking their daughter’s hand in marriage.

4) Enraged with the feeling of constant rejection, Akshay went to Harish and confided in him
the entire situation that transpired between him and Aarohi’s parents. Harish, aged 52, had
always treated Akshay as his son, ever since Akshay’s parents died in a car accident in 2005.
After Harish heard the entire situation he could visualize the extent of attachment that Akshay
had for Aarohi and felt that he was depressed. So, he suggested that he should find Aarohi
alone and take her to the temple and marry her without informing Aarohi’s parents. If Aarohi
 resisted from getting married to Akshay, Harish would threaten her with a bottle of acid to
pressurize her to get married to Akshay.

5) Akshay, who was reluctant initially, agreed to the plan on the condition that no harm will be
caused to Aarohi and the bottle of acid will only be used as a tool to threaten her for
compliance to their wishes. On 3rd April, 2013 as per the plan, Akshay and Harish found
Aarohi walking alone on the road. On seeing her alone, they decided to get out of their car.
Akshay approached her and asked her to accompany him to the temple so that they could get
married. On Aarohi’s resistance, Harish decided to threaten her with the bottle of acid.
Akshay started dragging her towards their car. When Aarohi started screaming for help, in the
moment of panic, Akshay opened the bottle and threw the acid on her face. Harish and
Akshay ran away from the scene in their car and left Aarohi writhing in immense pain. She
was taken to the hospital by some passerby.

6) The doctors immediately conducted the surgeries on her as the injuries were severe in nature.
A First Information Report was lodged and the statement of Aarohi was recorded. A case was
registered against Akshay and Harish under section 326A r/w 120B of the Nyaysthan Penal
Code (NPC), 1860 and Akshay was also charged with 354D of the NPC. Akshay absconded
and was declared as a proclaimed offender while Harish was arrested by police from his
home and the bottle of acid and the car, used in the commission of crime, were seized from
his possession. After investigation he was put to trial before the Sessions Court, where he
pleaded not guilty and claimed for a trial. Bail was rejected and Harish was in Judicial
Custody during the entire trial.

7) Session Court, in July 2019 convicted Harish under section 326A r/w 120B of Nyaysthan
Penal Code, 1860 and sentenced him to 15 years of rigorous imprisonment and ordered that
the period of imprisonment undergone during the trial shall be included in the punishment
and was also ordered to pay compensation to Aarohi to a tune of Rs. 3,00,000/- to be paid
immediately. In the meantime, there was an increase in the number of acid attack incidents.

8) Harish being aggrieved by the judgment preferred an appeal to the Leebay High Court in
August 2019 seeking acquittal on the ground that it was Akshay who threw acid on Aarohi.
The Leebay High Court upheld the conviction of Harish but reduced the punishment from 15
years to 10 years, Aarohi felt betrayed by the legal system. Aarohi had permanently lost her
eye sight. There were permanent scars on her face and hands. This made a permanent scar on
her mind. Being dejected by the Leebay High Court order, Aarohi committed suicide.

9) This led to an uproar in the Public and in the Media. Many Women’s rights Organization
were outraged across the country. Many candle marches and protests started taking place all
over the country. The National Commission for Women came forward and filed a Special
Leave Petition before the Supreme Court of Nyaysthan contending that the offence was of a
very heinous nature and thus prayed for life imprisonment of Harish. "the Supreme Court has
kept the matter at the stage of admission on 15th & 16th February, 2020.".

Participants can raise a maximum of 4 issues before the Supreme Court.

 NOTE TO COUNSEL

1. Nyaysthan is a constitutional republic that follows the common law system.

2. The Nyaysthan Constitution guarantees the same set of Fundamental rights to persons as Part III of
the Indian Constitution.

3. Nyaysthan follows a system of trial by judge and not by jury.

4. Nyaysthan has adopted the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

5. Nyaysthan has adopted the Nyaysthan Procedure Code 1973 which is a verbatim copy of the Indian
Criminal Procedure Code, 1973(CrPC).
6. Nyaysthan has adopted the Nyaysthan Evidence Code 1872 which is a verbatim copy of the Indian
Evidence Act, 1872.
RULES FOR MOOT COURT

1. ELIGIBILITY & TEAM COMPOSITION

a) Students pursuing the Three Years (A/Y 2017-2020) / Five Years (A/Y 2015-2020) LL.B.
Course from any law School/College/University in India recognized by the Bar Council of
India (BCI) are eligible to participate.
b) Law Schools/Colleges/Universities are entitled to nominate only one team.
c) Teams shall comprise of a maximum of 3 members (two designated as MOOTER
and one as RESEARCHER) and a minimum of 2 members (both designated as
MOOTER) members.
2. LANGUAGE, DRESS CODE AND CONDUCT
f) The official language of the competition shall be English.
g) The participants must adhere to standards of conduct and dress as high as those required of
a lawyer engaged in the practice of law in SUPREME COURT OF INDIA, however, use of
robes and/or collars is not permitted.

3. MEMORIAL SUBMISSION:
h) Each Team must prepare memorials for both parties, i.e., the Petitioner/Appellant and the

Respondent. A soft copy of the memorials must be e-mailed to the administrators (each side in

PDF) at lawevent@lordsuniversal.edu.in latest by 04th February 2020 (18:00 hours 1ST) and the

subject of the email should be "Submission of Memorials for Lex-Loci 2020. The file names of

the electronic copies of the Memorials must contain only the team code and the side being

represented (P for Petitioner & R for Respondent). E.g., Petitioner Memorial of Team Code-1
 should be named 1P. Five hard copies of the memorials (10 in total) must be submitted to the

administrators latest by 10th February, 2020 (18.00 hours IST). The hard copies must be

identical to the soft copy, else, disqualification would ensue.

FORMAT OF THE MEMORIALS

i. The Memorial shall be printed on only one side of A4 size paper, with the following
mandatory formatting specifications:
a) 1 inch margin on all sides;
b) Times New Roman typeface with 12 font size; and
c) 1.5 line spacing.
ii. Teams shall cite authorities in the Memorial using footnotes.
iii. Explanatory or illustrative footnotes are not allowed. For footnotes, the formatting
specifications are:
a) Times New Roman typeface with 10 font size; and
b) Single (1) line spacing.
iv. The Memorials shall be spiral bound.
v. The following color scheme shall be followed for the Cover Page of the Memorials:
PETITIONER: BLUE and RESPONDENT: RED (The cover pages are already color
coded in the sample memorial).
vi. The Arguments advanced shall not be in more than 20 pages.

PENALTIES

a) Late Submission: 2 points for every 12 hours delay; disqualification after 48 hours.
b) Incorrect filename: 1 point per file.
c) Deviation from Sample Memorial format: 2 points for each instance.
d) Improper formatting: 1 points for each instance.
e) Improper citations: 2 points.
f) Exceeding page limit in argument advanced: 2 points per page.

EXCHANGE AND RETURN OF MEMORIALS

i. There shall be an exchange of Memorials between the respective opposing Teams in accordance
with the rules and regulations of the institution prior to all the rounds of the competition.
ii. The Teams are prohibited from making any marks on the exchanged Memorials and must return
the Memorials to the administrators after each round.
iii. The teams must arrive a day prior to the competition and must be present at the Quadrangle of The
Lord's Universal College of Law sharp 05.00 pm for Draw of Lots & Exchange of Memorials.

ORAL ROUNDS
Rules of Oral Submission

a) The order in which Teams shall submit their oral submission throughout the Competition shall
be: Counsels for Appellant/Petitioner followed by Counsels for the Respondent.
b) The time split between the speakers must be communicated to the Court Masters prior to
the commencement of each Round. Once informed, these timings may not be changed.
c) Delay in appearance for a round exceeding five (5) minutes will render disqualification of
the team for that round. In such a case, their opponent shall make their oral submissions
ex-parte.
d) Any Compendium of cited authorities may be submitted to the Court Masters prior to the
oral pleading session. However, any further document may also be submitted during the
proceeding, at the discretion of the bench.
e) Use of any electronic device is prohibited during oral rounds.
f) Team members may pass written material to the Orator who may be speaking, in a discreet
manner without disrupting Court proceedings.

PRELIMINARY ROUNDS

a) Each team might not have to argue from both the sides.
b) Time limit for the oral submissions in this round shall be fifteen (15) minutes for each team. This
shall include the submissions of both the speakers from the team and the time reserved for
rebuttal/surrebuttal. No speaker may reserve more than eight (8) minutes for his/her individual
oral submissions.
c) Only one speaker from each team shall be permitted to rebut/surrebut and team shall not reserve
more than three (3) minutes for rebuttal or surrebuttal; and the surrebuttal shall be limited to
the point of rebuttal made by the opponent team & upon the discretion of the Judge.

SEMI-FINAL ROUNDS
Time limit for the oral submissions shall be thirty-five (35) minutes for each team. This shall include
the submissions of both the speakers from the team and the time reserved for rebuttal/surrebuttal.
No speaker may reserve more than twenty (20) minutes for his/her individual oral submissions.
Only one speaker from each team shall be permitted to rebut/sur-rebut and team shall not reserve
more than four (4) minutes for rebuttal or sur-rebuttal; and the sur-rebuttal shall be limited to the
rebuttals made by the opponent team & upon the discretion of the Judge.
FINAL ROUND
a) Time limit for the oral submissions shall be forty-five (45) minutes for each team. This shall include
the submissions of both the speakers from the team and the time reserved for
rebuttal/surrebuttal. No speaker may reserve more than twenty-five (25) minutes for his/her
individual oral submissions.
b) Only one speaker from each team shall be permitted to rebut/sur-rebut and team shall not reserve
more than seven (7) minutes for rebuttal or surrebuttal; and the surrebuttal shall be limited to
the rebuttals made by the opponent team & upon the discretion of the Judge.

4. STRUCTURE OF THE ROUNDS

a) Top eight (8) teams will qualify from Preliminary Rounds for the Quarter-final Round,
b) Top (4) teams to qualify from Quarter-final Round to the Semi-final Round and
c) Top (2) teams will qualify from Semi-final Round to the Final Round.
d) The side on which a Team will be arguing will be decided by draw of lots.