DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,

LUCKNOW

MOOT COURT COMMITTEE

UNIVERSITY MOOT COURT SELECTIONS,

GRAND INTRA, 2021

MOOT PROPOSITION
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IN RE: CATCHING THEM ALL

1. Bash Tatum and Princy Latham lived in Pika-land, and were best friends and gamers. These
two always dreamt of pooling their resources as students and incorporating a start-up. Bash
had already served as an Additional Director on the board of his father’s gaming company
– Unglee Games Private Limited (Unglee Games), and had prior experience in being a part
of a company running such a business.

2. Bash and Princy’s dream of incorporating their start-up fructified when they received initial
seed-money from Whiterock Limited (Whiterock). With the seed-money, Bash and Princy
incorporated – Backamon Inc. Private Limited (Backamon). Whiterock and Backamon
entered into a shareholders and share-subscription agreement (SPSHA), pursuant to which
Whiterock purchased 60% stake in Backamon. Pursuant to the said SPSHA, Mr. Droc Chu
was appointed by Whiterock on the board of Backamon and was granted extensive veto-
powers for decision making, while on the board. Bash was the Chief-Executive Officer and
a Director. Princy was the Managing Director. Mr. Happy, Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Sleepy
were also on Backamon’s board, but only as nominal directors. All decisions were taken
by Droc, Bash and Princy, and no decision, whether urgent or otherwise could be taken by
the board of Backamon without the consent of either of these three directors. This was also
incorporated in the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) adopted by the board of
Backamon, and the resolution to amend the Articles of Association of the Backamon to
adopt the SOP was pending approval.

3. Unglee Games, Whiterock and Backamon were all located in the National Capital Region
of Charizard (NCRC) in Pika-land. The laws of Pika-land are pari materia to India. The
laws of NCRC are pari materia to the State of Maharashtra in India.

4. Upon the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Droc, Bash and Princy took upon themselves
to develop quality software and gaming products with a view to provide entertainment to
gamers within the comfort of their surroundings. They developed this online virtual reality
game called Backamon Go- Got to Catch Them AllTM (Game) and released the same on 25
July, 2020 on the world-wide game rating website.

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5. The Game could be downloaded for free. Upon download, the instruction video would have
to be mandatorily viewed by each user. The first three rounds thereafter could be played
for free, post which, the tokens of nominal amounts would have to be bought by the user.1
Amounts could be of 100 Kronas, 200 Kronas, 300 Kronas, upto 15,000 Kronas. 2 The web-
site only allowed a maximum recharge of 15,000 Kronas.

6. For the purposes of promotion, Backamon decided to permit the first 10,000 users to play
5 rounds for free on a first-come, first-serve basis. This offer could be availed by
users/gamers by scanning the QR-Code with their mobile devices/tablets etc., which would
be flashed in the sky in all the major capital cities of the word- Beijing, Rome, London,
Washington DC, NCRC, New Delhi, Paris, Brasilia, Nairobi, etc., at 8 p.m. Pika Standard
Time (PST).

7. Mewoth, an 8-year-old son of police officers Jessie and James Doe, all residents of NCRC,
was terribly bored with his online classes and had heard about the release of the Game from
his classmates. He had been given a tablet by his school to attend these online classes. His
parents had already fed in their initial credit card details into the tablet to remember for
buying apps for his school-work. No amount could however be deducted without entering
the CVV number and OTP.

8. By 25 July, 2020 at 8 p.m. PST, Mewoth had already downloaded the Game. He rushed
out to the front of his house and excitedly held up his tablet to scan the QR Code being
projected. After scanning the QR Code and winning the tokens for 5 free-games, the
instruction video played. The entire instruction manual also downloaded automatically on
his tablet with the following house and Game rules:

a. Introduction: Backamon Go is a virtual reality game where users have to move

within a 2 kilometres radius physically and catch “Backamons”, virtually, using
their tablet/mobile device. The users have to focus their camera/ tablet on the road
and walk around, led by the GPS of their device, and “catch” the Backamons.

1
Note: A user can play any number of practice rounds for free. These rounds would be against a bot and not
any actual gamer.
2
Note: 1 Kronas = 1 INR
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b. Who are Backamons: In the virtual world of the Game, Backamons are fantasy
organisms/animals/ mutant species who possess special powers in the virtual world
depending on their online virtual habitat. Per the Game, Backamons are of 4 types-
Earth Backamons, Water Backamons, Fire Backamons and Space Backamons. The
Earth Backamons were the strongest in the virtual reality world, then the Water
Backamons, then the Fire Backamons and then the Space Backamons. However,
each Backamon could mutate and be trained by its trainer (user) and adapt to fight
in another habitat, and even defeat another Backamon stronger than it. To win a
fight, the Backamon would not only need to possess strength but agility, strategy
and speed, some of which also depend on its training/practice rounds. Further, the
skills of a Backamon would be enhanced/used to its advantage by the user
depending on the virtual arena in which the final fight is taking place i.e. Earth-
Dome, Fire-Dome, Water-Dome, Space-Dome. That is, a Space Backamon would
have enhanced skills in its own home environment i.e. Space-Dome and so on and
so-forth.

c. Catching and collecting Backamons: To be eligible to enter into a fight, a user

would have to collect 8 Backamons. The location of a virtual Backamon would be
revealed by the GPS installed in the tablet/mobile phone. As users moved around
the places where they lived and visited, their device would vibrate to let them know
when they were near a Backamon. Once they encountered a Backamon, aim could
be taken on the device’s touch screen and a Backamon could be caught by throwing
a Backe-Ball to catch it. Also, the users could look for Backe-Stops located at
interesting places – such as public art installations, historical markers, and
monuments; where one could collect more Backe-Balls and other items.

d. Generation of Backamons: The Backamons found in an area would depend on an

algorithm, which would randomly generate the Backamons available in a sub-
district. This algorithm would be out of the control of any player.

e. Game-Arenas: Players in order to compete in fights would be divided into game-

arenas. Each game-arena would comprise of players in that sub-district or pin-code,
whichever is smaller in terms of square-kilometrage.

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f. Drafting Backamons: Players would have to draft a team of 8 Backamons –

comprising of Backamons from atleast 2 categories. The Backamon you would
“catch” and finally draft in your team, would depend on the previous Backamon
caught in your Backe-Ball and its powers, and whether they were sufficient to over-
power, capture and win the next Backamon. Each player can travel from one sub-
district to another in search of Backamons, but would only be entitled to compete
in the rounds of the sub-district as fed in by him while downloading the Game app.
The final team would comprise of only 8 Backamons, though a player can catch as
many as it wanted.

g. Fights: Each player would have to play and win 19 fight rounds, to reach the finale,
where the top 8 players of a district would compete in the final virtual round. The
virtual arena for each fight would change; depending on Space-Dome, Fire-Dome,
Water-Dome and Earth-Dome where players would have to deploy their team of
Backamons to win. Each of these fight rounds would involve 2 players. Backamon
was also planning to hold a virtual world championship after the Game had received
sufficient traction.

h. Winnings: Unless playing the initial practice round/free rounds, the amount loaded
by each player into the app wallet, would be divided amongst the players in the ratio
of 80:20 between the winner and the loser, respectively. The Game could not be
played without money, unless the practice rounds were being played.

i. Payments: Loading of money on the app can only happen through a third-party
payment gateway site after the user goes through two-factor authentication/OTP
feeding. It is pertinent to note that if by the final round, the loser did not have any
money in his app-wallet, he would be directed to the third-party payment site where
he would receive a prompt for the necessary amounts to be deducted. The deduction
would only happen post the two-factor authentication on the payment gateway site.
Non-payment would result in the loser being banned from the Game app, until the
payment of the losing amount plus penal fee of 5% of the losing amount.

9. The Game developed soon became famous and was featured in the World Tech Weekly,
Vogue and the Wire, as the App of the Year. The Apps were bought by indigenous

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companies of other countries and Droc, Princy and Bash earned millions from franchise
and distributorship deals.

10. Mewoth Doe, meanwhile, played the initial practice and free rounds and continued to play
after that too. By the end of the week, he had played 7000 rounds and spent 15,00,000
Kronas. Mewoth Doe was not alone. His class mates HJ Potter and DS Targareyn had also
lost monies by playing and becoming addicted to their screens.

11. After 10 days, when Mr. James Doe checked his account balance, more than 15,00,000
Kronas had been deducted. He had not received any OTP and questioned the bank and the
payment gateway site, both of which pointed towards Backamon. Livid that Mewoth had
become susceptible to this gaming app, he filed a complaint against Bash, Droc and Princy
in the Main Police Station, Rajendra Nagar, NCRC (Main PS). No other person was named
in the FIR.

12. James Doe complained that Bash, Droc and Princy had violated the provisions of Sections
4 and 5 of the NCRC Prevention of Gambling Act, 1887,3 Sections 66C of the Pika-land
Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 420 of the Pika-land Penal Code, 1860.4
The complaint specifically mentioned that Bash and Princy had, by encouraging gaming
and gambling, were corrupting the youth and their morality. He also mentioned that Bash
had been on the board of Unglee Games, which had previously been involved in a similar
scandal, and had been named in an FIR lodged against Unglee Games, though the same had
been quashed later by the concerned Court.

13. Pursuant to the complaint by James Doe, FIR bearing case crime No. 3000/ 2021 was
lodged in the Main PS. The Main Police, comprising of ACP Mr. B. Singham and ACP Mr.
B. Simba conducted the arrests. Only Princy and Droc were arrested without notice at
around 8 p.m. Owing to the matter acquiring high-stakes and media attention, the matter
was taken up by the Crime Branch, NCRC.

3
Note: The provisions of this legislation are identical to those of Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act,
1887.
4
Note: The provisions of the Pika-land Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 420 of the Pika-land
Penal Code, 1860 are identical to those of the IT Act, 2000 and IPC, 1860 respectively. Specific
amendments to criminal law, as applicable to the State of Maharashtra, would apply to the state of NCRC.
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14. The next morning, Backamon hired top criminal lawyers from NCRC, who filed bail
applications under Section 437 of the Cr.P.C., 1973 to secure release for Droc and Princy.
They also filed anticipatory bail application in respect of Bash, and application to set-aside
the debit freeze of the accounts frozen by the police.

15. When the Droc and Princy were produced before the Sessions Court, Rajendra Nagar, at 4
p.m. the next day, the Crime Branch had moved an application seeking police custody of
Droc and Princy for 14 days to interrogate them and seek details regarding the money. The
Ld. Sessions Judge allowed police custody for 7 days and dismissed Droc and Princy’s bail
applications. Bash’s application for anticipatory bail was disposed off, with a direction that
any arrest that would be undertaken, would be with a pre-arrest notice for 3 days.

16. Unsatisfied with the outcome of the proceedings, Jessie and James Doe moved pleadings
before the NCRC High Court in terms of Section 482 of the Cr.P.C., 19735 and Article 226
of the Constitution of India, 1950, alleging that: (i) the police custody of Droc and Princy
should have been granted for 14 days for the purposes of investigation; (ii) the Ld. Sessions
Judge could not have granted a direction for pre-arrest notice to be issued when the
anticipatory bail application was heard.

17. Princy’s and Droc’s lawyers filed fresh bail applications under Section 439 of the Cr.P.C.,
1973 before the NCRC High Court, seeking bail of the detained. A fresh anticipatory bail
application was also filed in respect of Bash under Section 438 of the Cr.P.C., 1973.
Princy’s and Droc’s lawyers alleged that their arrest had been conducted in gross-
procedural violation of Cr.P.C., 1973; and in any event, the offences mentioned in the FIR
would have all been bailable had the police not added Section 420 of the Pika-land Penal
Code, 1860 in pursuance of its vendetta and a witch-hunt against tech companies. In any
event, no offence could be made out against them as: (i) none of the essentials of Section
66C of the Pika-land Technology Act, 2000 and the Pika-land Penal Code, 1860 had been
fulfilled; and (ii) The Game was anyway one of skill, thus saved by the exception carved
out under the Pika-land Prevention of Gambling Act, 1887.

5
Note: CrPC, 1973 as applicable to Pika-land and NCRC would be as applicable to India and State of
Maharashtra.
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18. Bash’s lawyers argued that no offence had been made out against him for the same reasons,
and that the requirements for granting anticipatory bail under Cr.P.C., 1973 as applicable
to the State of NCRC had been fulfilled.

19. Since the de-freezing applications filed before the Ld. Sessions Judge also concerned the
same set of facts, the Ld. High Court, on an application filed by Backamon’s lawyers, listed
the same before itself on the same day along with the other applications. Backamon’s
lawyers argued that the bank accounts had been frozen in vain and without compliance with
the provisions of Cr.P.C., 1973. Further, that the freezing of the accounts had completely
hampered the business of Backamon, which merited a favourable order from the Ld. High
Court.

20. When the matters were listed before the Ld. High Court, the Ld. Single Judge framed the
following issues for hearing:

a. Whether the complainant James Doe and his wife Jessie Doe had the locus to file
pleadings/appeals in this matter?

b. Whether a pre-arrest notice could have been issued to Bash in the anticipatory bail
application filed by him before the Ld. Sessions Judge?

c. Whether the present fresh anticipatory bail application filed on behalf of Bash could
be allowed in view of the grounds mentioned?

d. Whether the fresh bail applications filed on behalf of Droc and Princy could be
allowed in view of the grounds mentioned in the application?

e. Whether Backamon’s bank accounts could be directed to be de-frozen by the

police?

21. The Counsel for the State of NCRC (Public Prosecutor) and the Counsels for Backamon,
Droc and Princy, and Mr. Bash have been asked to appear and advance arguments on the
above-mentioned issues.

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22. In relation to the bail/anticipatory bail applications, arguments may be advanced by the
counsels (not the PP) specifically for each of the three mentioned in the FIR.

***

Note: The current moot problem may not be used by any participant, or any other party, for
any reason, including intra-school competitions, without the prior written consent of the
Organising Committee.