This Experience has been shared by Anandita Shekhar Tiwari, Campus Leader at Lawctopus.
I am a student in Shri Ram Swaroop University who worked as a Volunteer in the Moot Court Committee. There are multiple competitions that are organized by the Moot Court Committee, such as Intra-Moot Court Competitions and Trial Advocacy Events, but the one that is most anticipated is always the National Moot Competition.
In the month of April, the 2nd National Moot Court was organized by the Committee, spanning 3 days (from April 17-19). In those 3 days, different teams from around the country participated in the competition.
The participating teams were in the group of 3, Speaker 1, Speaker 2, and Researcher. It was conducted online via Google Meet, which meant that the pressure was on for everybody.
The Competition was organized in multiple levels, in the initial stage, the participating teams were chosen for the next stage of the competition by selecting through their memorials and then researcher’s test.
Of all the teams that participated, 50 teams were eventually chosen to take part in the Mooting stage of the Competition.
On Day 1, the teams were divided in a pair of two and 25 separate rounds were conducted simultaneously, twice on that day.
The teams were allotted their roles as defendant or as Petitioner for both the parts, each team had to represent itself from both the sides, if one team had to represent Petitioner in the first half, then it would be switched with that team representing the defendant in the second half and vice-versa.
On Day 2, semi-final round was conducted with the 4 chosen teams and eventually 2 were chosen. On Day 3, the final stage of Mooting Competition was undertaken between the final two teams, which was live streamed and is still in-fact available on YouTube.
For volunteers, there were multiple jobs, there were ‘Court Masters’ who were necessary to carry out each of these rounds, general volunteers who would make sure that Core-Committee members of the Moot Court can communicate with Court Masters in case of any issue, technical or otherwise, while Court Masters were in Virtual Courtrooms, there were Volunteers in Media Committee who had prior to this competition advertised about it on Social Media platforms, as well designed the banners and the certificates.
The senior members of the Committee too were very busy, from contacting legal professionals from across the nation to be part of the Judges panel to training the Volunteers as Court Masters, there was a lot of preparation, hard-work and deliberation behind the scenes.
There were multiple volunteers from the first year including myself, and for us, this was an unbelievable opportunity. The fact that we were being trusted with such a huge responsibility was a huge thing in itself. As a Court Master, my job was to make sure that each round is conducted smoothly, and everything is done so within the time constraints of the Competition.
Even during the round, we were to communicate with the teams and the judges panel to remind them to join the competition on time to ensure timely conduction of the round, especially as we had to conduct twice in the same day and each round roughly spanned 50-60 minutes.
There was a 2-hour gap in between the rounds, so that teams may be able to have some room for any last-minute strategy or planning.
Day 1 was the most hectic of all three, simply due to sheer number of rounds. With so many courtrooms and court masters, it was a little chaotic for the Moot Court Committee’s core members, who were spread thin. Nevertheless, our senior members were really masterful in handling all that pressure and guided all us, the newcomers properly, ensuring all the rounds were conducted smoothly.
I was a bit nervous even though I had Volunteered before in Intra-Moot Court Competition before, but since it was National Moots, the nervousness still creeped in. In National Moots, we are not representing ourselves but our entire university. The Judge’s and Participant’s perception and reputation of our University relies on our own conduct, which just raises the stakes to a much higher level.
In those 3 days and the days leading to the competition, I learned a lot as a legal student. I learnt how to properly conduct myself in such a professional setting, as well as how to make split second decisions when it’s my call, because even despite all the briefing, there were still moments when I had to rely on my own prudence. I also had the opportunity to observe all the participants and the judges, their behaviour and their conduct.
The judges panel was made up of practicing lawyers, lecturers and other legal professionals, the questions put up by them were insightful, the participants were from third years and above and were all my seniors, so listening to them answering the questions put up by the bench was an enlightening experience.
It also made me feel more confident for my future career in Mooting. In short, it was a very vivid and insightful experience for me and I truly believe it was the same for the other first year students beside me as well.
This moot court experience is a part of our experience series. Stay tuned for more!
Source: Lawctopus
