NLU Jodhpur wins Regional Rounds of Price Media Law Moot; NALSAR clinches second

The team from National Law University, Jodhpur comprising Rohan Tigadi, Sanjana Srikumar and Sagar Gupta won the South Asia Rounds of Price Media Law Moot. National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad were the runners up..Yashna Mehta from National Law School India University (NLSIU), Bangalore won the award for Best Speaker while the award for Best Memorial went to NLU Jodhpur..Bar & Bench spoke to the team from NLU Jodhpur on their experience at the competition..Bar & Bench: What made you choose this particular moot?.Sanjana Srikumar: I had heard that it is a well- organized moot with good quality judging. I also liked that it was based on contemporary events, trying to re-examine standards of freedom of speech in the context of the development of social media..Sagar Gupta: The subject of Media Law is particularly interesting as it doesn’t have settled jurisprudence. The issues under the moot are required to be dealt with in reference to multiple jurisdictions. Therefore, the application of the various legal standards to the facts seemed challenging. Additionally, the competition is one of the most prestigious moot court programmes in the world..Rohan Tigadi: I am interested in constitutional law. This moot gave me an opportunity to explore the jurisprudence pertaining to freedom of expression and freedom of religion in other jurisdictions. Therefore, I was very keen on doing this moot..B&B: What was the preparation phase like?.SS: We spent a lot of time reading up on related real-life events. It gave us perspective on how different parts of the world view free speech, the importance religion may have in a particular society etc. It allowed us to make arguments that were not merely theoretical. We realized that the key was not to find authorities that support absolute stands; rather, we had to make the side we were representing sound reasonable.We also spent a lot of time debating the structure of our arguments, and continued to revise it till the very end.I think what worked for us is that we allowed a high degree of constructive criticism- from each other, from our coach Vinayak Pannikar and from past winner Harshad Pathak. We kept the debate alive- engaging in painfully long discussions. This made sure each argument went through a lot of grilling from within the team, before it reached the final draft..SG: The preparation was very hectic. Keeping up with the strict deadlines was a personal challenge. But we structured the memorial preparation into three stages. First, the issue structure was finalised. Next, over the course of two and a half months, three drafts were submitted. This was followed by rigorous formatting and footnoting exercises. Post the memo submission, we started the oral practice rounds with past participants of the moot. In the end, we fared well.We would like to thank Vinayak Panikkar and Harshad Pathak for believing in us and investing so much of efforts in helping us. We would not have reached this far without their constant support..RT: We were allocated the moot way back in February. We chalked out a schedule with our coach, Vinayak Panikkar. Before the moot problem was out, our coach conducted tests on areas pertinent to the moot. Then, we had to adhere to the deadlines for submission of our draft memorials. We re-drafted our entire memorials 4 times. We are also very grateful to Harshad Pathak for helping us with drafting and our oral pleadings for the moot. Lastly, I would thank the past participants of the moot, batch mates and other seniors for putting us through gruelling practice sessions before the actual rounds..B&B: Any special moments that you would like to share?.SS: I think what really stood out for me was the dinner at India International Centre after four prelims, of which three were nearly consecutive. We were exhausted and nervous- and nearly certain we won’t qualify. When we realized we had the highest points in the prelims, at a time when we had no energy to keep going, it really gave us the confidence to keep at it. The reaction from college alumni who had come to judge and everyone else from college back at home really kept us going through another day of three continuous rounds..SG: During the moot, unlike most other teams, we looked happy and joked around in between the rounds. We firmly believed that we would do well at the moot. The South Asia Rounds at NLU Delhi was a brilliant experience..RT: For me, the best moment of the moot was when one of the judges walked up to us after the final rounds and told us ‘if I was half as good as you when I was your age, I would have been a far better lawyer today’. At that moment, I felt that our hard work had paid off.