3 RD SCHOOL OF LAW, CHRIST (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY) NATIONAL TRIAL ADVOCACY AND JUDGMENT WRITING COMPETITION, 2018. OFFICIAL RULES AND REGULATIONS. 1. DEFINITIONS FOR THE PURPOSE OF 3 RD SCHOOL OF LAW, CHRIST (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), NATIONAL TRIAL ADVOCACY AND JUDGMENT WRITING COMPETITION, 2018. The following words shall have the corresponding meanings for the purpose of the 3 rd School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University) National Trial Advocacy and Judgment Writing competition, 2018: 1.1 Trial - Trial for the purpose of this competition shall refer to the 3 rd School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University) National Trial Advocacy and Judgment Writing Competition, 2018: 1.2 Organizers - means the Advanced Criminal Law Studies Committee of School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University) and any person appointed by the said committee. 1.3 Disqualification - means that the team will not be allowed to participate in the competition; they shall not be awarded a Certificate of Participation or any Prize. 1.4 Judge means any person appointed by the committee to evaluate a Participants oral pleading. 1.5 Penalties - means the points which are deductible on account of non-adherence to court timings as mentioned under Table A. 1 Page
1.6 Participant - means the student representing their colleges, recognized by the organizers to participate in the competition. 1.7 Rules - means the official rules of the competition and any other supplementary rules of Christ (Deemed to be University) GENERAL RULES 2. AIM AND PURPOSE 2.1.The 3 rd School of Law, Christ (Deemed To Be University) National Trial Advocacy and Judgment Writing Competition, 2018 (Hereinafter referred to as competition ), shall be for the purpose of nurturing and creating opportunities for developing the skills of litigation and examination in trial courts. 2.2.The Competition includes a Judgment Writing Competition, which enhances the reasoning and writing skills of budding lawyers and students aspiring to enter judiciary. 3. VENUE AND DATE 3.1.The National Trial Advocacy and Judgment Writing Competition 2018 shall be held, from 9 th to 11 th of February, 2018. It will be held in School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University), Hosur Road, Bangalore - 560 029. 4. ELIGIBILTY 4.1.The Competition shall be open for students who are pursuing three or five-year LL.B. Degree Course in Universities/Colleges/Law Departments in India, as recognized by the Bar Council of India. 2 Page
5. MEDIUM OF LANGUAGE 5.1.For the purpose of this competition, the language of communication shall be English only. 6. TEAM COMPOSITION The team composition shall consist of Three Members only. 6.1. Two Speakers and One Researcher. 6.2. For the purpose of the Best Speaker Award, the speaker with the highest aggregate score only in the preliminary round will be taken into consideration. 6.3.The identity of the team shall not be disclosed to any other participating team or the judges. Any such disclosure shall invite disqualification. The decision for the same shall be at the discretion of the organizers. 6.4. Each member of the team shall also be given Individual team member codes. Example: One team will be given a general team code A and its Speakers and Researcher will be given the code of A1, A2 & A3 Respectively. 6.5. Each Team is only allowed to disclose their respective speaker code during rounds to the Judges or the Court clerks. Violation of the same would lead to disqualification. 7. DRESS CODE The dress code for the competition shall be strictly formals. 7.1.Gentlemen - Black trousers, White shirt, Black Blazer, Black Tie. 7.2.Ladies - Black trousers/skirt, White Shirt, Black Blazer. 7.3.Teams are not permitted to wear neck bands or advocate gowns during the rounds. 7.4.Gowns and neck bands may be allowed during the Finals at the discretion of the Organizers. 3 Page
8. REGISTRATION Any team wishing to participate must send the duly filled registration form and shall comply with the following rules; 8.1.Only 24 slots shall be made available and therefore, the slots shall be allotted on a first come first serve basis. 8.2.Teams shall pay a registration fee of Rs. 3,500/- by way of Demand Draft. 8.3.Institutions/Teams interested in participating in the Competition will have to provincially register and only after confirmation of allotment of slot by the organizers should they go ahead with final registration. 8.4.The Registration shall be done by e-mailing the scanned copy of the Registration Form and the Scanned Copy of a Demand Draft for Rs. 3,500/ (Rupees Three thousand Five hundred only) drawn in favour of CHRIST UNIVERSITY, payable at Bengaluru The subject of the e-mail shall be FINAL REGISTRATION. 8.5.The registration fee shall be Non- Refundable. 8.6.No changes in the team composition shall be permitted once the provincial registration is confirmed by the Organizers. 8.7.Only one team per college shall be allowed to take part in the Competition. 8.8. The teams are required to send scanned copy of the final registration form and demand draft to criminallaw.committee@law.christuniversity.in on or before 25 th January, 2018, 11.59 PM. 8.9.The organisers should receive the hardcopy of the registration form to the following address, on or before 28 th January, 2018. Mr Sugandh Saksena Faculty Coordinator Advanced Criminal Law Studies Committee 4 Page
School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University) Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560029 India. 9. ROUNDS Three shall be four rounds conducted for the purpose of this competition: 9.1.Preliminary Round- Each team shall argue before the Court once as Prosecution and once as defence. 9.2.Quarter Final Round- The top eight teams from the Preliminary rounds shall qualify for the Quarter Final Rounds. 9.3.Semi Final Round- The winning four teams from the Quarter Final Rounds shall qualify to the Semi Finals. 9.4.Finals- The two winning teams from the Semi Final Rounds shall qualify to the Final Rounds. 9.5.Each speaker has to conduct at least one examination and deliver either the opening or closing statement. No switching between participants shall be allowed. Any changes must be intimated to the organizers before the draw of lots. Illustration: If team A comprises of Speaker A1 and Speaker A2, Researcher A3. The speakers can switch roles amongst themselves, however the Researcher A3 will be the witness strictly in the preliminary rounds and later shall appear for the judgment writing competition. 9.6.For the preliminary rounds, the researcher of the team shall act as the witness. 9.7.The Organizers shall be providing the teams with witness for the quarter-finals, semifinal and final round. Teams shall be allowed to brief their witness 45 minutes for 5 Page
quarter-finals and 1 hour for semi-finals and final before the commencement of the trial. Any additional time taken will incur penalties. 9.8. The proceedings shall be recorded by the stenographer present in each court hall. 9.9. The accused has to be compulsorily examined. Violating the same would attract penalty. 10. CRITERIAL FOR QUALIFICATION TO QUARTER/ SEMI S/ FINAL ROUNDS 10.1. The teams securing wins in both the rounds of the prelims. In case there are less number of teams with the required wins the next eligible teams will be selected through round point system. 10.2. In case there is a tie in the round point system cumulative speaker scores will be considered to determine the ranks. 11. JUDGMENT WRITING COMPETTION. 11.1. There shall be a Judgment Writing Vompetition held on the 10 th of February, 2018. 11.2. One member of the team, who has acted as the researcher in all the previous rounds shall be eligible to take part in the judgment writing competition. If any speaker wilfully violates this rule and takes part in the judgment writing competition then that team shall be deemed to be disqualified. 11.3. The Judgment Writing Competition shall be conducted post the semi-final rounds. 11.4. The marking criteria for the judgment shall be based on the following: a) Facts in Brief b) Language and Style c) Knowledge of Law 6 Page
d) Application of Law e) Ratio Decidendi f) Justification of decision g) Obiter Dicta h) Creative interpretation of facts, law and style of writing the judgment. 11.5. Participants are not allowed to carry any previously prepared copy of the Judgments and make any reference to it. Each participant shall be provided with the relevant material for writing the Judgment. 11.6. Participants may carry with them only a copy of the bare text of IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act while writing the Judgment. 12. TRAVEL AND ACCOMADATION. 12.1. Teams have to make travel arrangements for the purpose of this competition personally. 12.2 Accommodation shall be provided from 8 th to 11 th February, 2018. Teams can check-in to the Hotel from 10 am onwards on 8 th and shall check out from the Hotels before 10 am on the 26 th. 13. MARKING SCHEME 13.1. Parameters for judging Speakers a) Knowledge of Facts b) Knowledge of Law c) Application of Law d) Understanding of the Criminal Procedure Court and Application e) Persuasiveness and Deference to the Court f) Ability to conduct Chief/ Cross Examination 7 Page
g) Ingenuity TABLE A- TIME LIMITS FOR EACH ROUND. TITLE TIME PENALTY Opening Statement 6-1 for every extra minute Examination in chief 20-1 for every extra minute Cross Examination 25-1 for every extra minute Closing Statement 12-1 for every extra minute 14. MISCELLANEOUS 14.1.Case laws the parties wish to rely on at the time of final arguments shall be submitted in three copies, one for each judge and one for the opposition. 14.2.All exhibits in the charge sheet are assumed to be exhibited in accordance with the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and the same shall be taken as to being duly proved, unless mentioned in the proposition as to be proved. 14.3.The judges will be recording the evidence for both the prosecution and defence as taken by participants in the competition. 14.4.In the event there is any contradiction between the evidence recorded in court and the Statements recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the participants must be aware as to the procedure to deal with such contradictions/omissions. 14.5.After completion of evidence, the participants will be given notes of evidence of prosecution and defence recorded by the court. A ten minutes break will be given to the 8 Page
participants for the perusal of the said notes of evidence. The participants will have to advance Final Arguments/ Closing Statements only on the basis of notes of evidence and the exhibited documents so provided to them. 14.6.All participating teams must be conversant with the Indian laws, legislations and procedures as followed by the Indian courts, whilst taking evidence and advancing final arguments for the prosecution and defence. 14.7. All the locations that are mentioned in the problem are real locations in Bengaluru. 14.8. Participants may bring documents for the purpose of validating any exhibit mentioned in the problem. The admissibility of such documents will be at the discretion of the court. 14.9. CCTV Footage and photographs pertaining to the problem will be sent only to those teams which complete their registration by payment through Demand draft. 15. CONTACT DETAILS E-MAIL ADDRESS: criminallaw.committee@law.christuniversity.in Sugandh Saksena (Faculty Co-ordinator): sugandh.saksena@gmail.com Mobile Numbers: Rajath Francis, Convenor (ACLSC) - +91 8123344952 Mallikarjun Khare, Convenor (ACLSC) - +91 8884723436 16. DISCLAIMER 16.1.The Material in the Trial Court proposition is not intended to and does not attempt to resemble any incident or any person living or dead. All material in the problem is fictitious and any resemblance to any incident or person, if any, is not intended, but merely co-incidental. 16.2.All the rights regarding the problem, rules is reserved by the Advanced Criminal Lsaw Studies Committee of School of Law, Christ (Deemed To Be University). 9 Page
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