REGIONAL MOOT COURT COMPETITION, 2023

25th MARCH, 2023

ORGANISED BY:
DEPARTMENT OF LAW
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL
ACCREDITED BY NAAC WITH GRADE ‘B++’
RAJA RAMMOHANPUR, P.O.- NBU, SILIGURI
DIST. DARJEELING
PIN CODE- 734013, INDIA

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 INDEX

I. ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF LAW

II. ABOUT THE MOOT COURT SOCIETY
III. ORGANISING COMMITTEE
IV. RULES OF THE COMPETITION
IV.I.Rounds of the Competition
IV.II. Languages
IV.III. Eligibility for Participation
IV.IV. Composition of Participating Team
IV.V. Dress Code
IV.VI. Participation and Registration
IV.VII. Memorial Submission
IV. VIII. Guidelines for Formatting Memorials
IV.VIII.I. Structure of Memorials
IV.VIII.II. Team Code
IV. VIII.III. Content Specification
V. SCORING AREA
VI. TIME FOR ORAL ROUNDS
VI.I. Preliminary Rounds and Quarter Final Rounds
VI. II. Semi-Final Rounds and Final Round
VI.III. Maximum Time allotted
VII.SCOUTING
VIII. ACCOMODATION AND TRAVEL
IX. REGISTRATION FEES
X. CONTACT DETAILS
IX.I. Student Co-ordinators
IX.II. Faculty Co-ordinators
XI. LIST OF IMPORTANT DATES
XII. MOOT PROPOSITION

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I. ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Law is prominently situated on Asian Highway 2 between

Bagdogra and Siliguri in the District of Darjeeling. The distance from
Bagdogra is six kilometres and from Siliguri is seven kilometres. The
Department has its own campus in the south Block of the University opposite
of the main campus of University of North Bengal. The sprawling campus of
the University enjoys the pristine beauty of the eastern Himalayas and is the
intellectual hub of North Bengal. Siliguri is an important subdivision of the
district and commercial capital of North Bengal. Located at the foot hills of
eastern Himalayas, Siliguri is the gate way to north eastern India and
countries like Bhutan and Nepal. It shares a huge and porous international
border with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. It is well connected with all
major cities of India by air and rail. The Department of Law was formerly
known as the North Bengal University Law College and was established as
such in the year 1974. It was upgraded as the Department of Law in the year
2000. Presently the Department offers B.A. LL.B. [Honours] 5-year integrated
course, LL.M. course, M.Phil and Ph.D. The intake at the LL.B. level is
ninety s i x , and the LL.M. course which was started in 1993 has
t h i r t y s i x seats. The criteria of admission both at B.A.LL.B.[Honours] under
CBCS mode and LL.M. under CBCS mode are on merit. The Department has a
rich Ph.D. programme. It was started in 1999 and since then 48 Ph.D. degrees
have been awarded. Presently there are about seventeen scholars engaged in
doctoral research under various faculty members under the UGC Regulation,
2016. The Department attracts scholars and students from all over India and
especially from Sikkim, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and
Orissa. It also attracts students from Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The
Department was jointly selected by the British Council, Delhi, University of
Warwick, U.K. and the National Law School of India University to carry out the'
Human Rights Outreach Project'. It was also a partner institution with CEERA,
National Law School of India University for carrying out environment education
for forest personnel, Tea Garden personnel and judicial officers. The Department

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has published Booklets on Human Rights, Environment Legislations in Bengali
and Nepali. It has a Legal Aid Clinic in collaboration with the State Legal
Services Authorities. It runs a very successful NSS programme. The recently
formed Centre for Child Rights at the behest of the UNICEF in collaboration with
the Legal Aid Committee shall also conduct outreach programmes in relation to
child rights and child welfare. That apart, it is noteworthy that Department of Law
has also established a 'Centre for Cyber Law and Cyber Security' in the year 2018.
The Department has been organising Regional, National and International
Seminar / Conference / workshop/Symposium etc. at regular intervals (37
programmes in last 17 years). The Department also undertakes a number of
Research Projects sponsored by different National and International bodies on
regular basis. Moreover, it has close collaboration with renowned national and
international institutions. The publication cell of the Department is very active. It
brings out the Indian Journal of Law and Justice (IJLJ-ISSN:09763570), double
binded peer reviewed, UGC carelisted, SCOPUS and HenOnline Indexed bi-
annual journal). The Journal can be accessed in its official websites: ijlj.nbu.ac.in.
More over the publication cell brings out an edited book on the topic of that year's
Seminar. The Cell has presently undertaken a venture to publish the research
projects undertaken by the Department and outstanding research work done by the
students.

II. ABOUT THE MOOT COURT SOCIETY

The Moot Court Society of Department of Law, University of North Bengal
has been set up in 2018. The objective of this Moot Court Society is to
provide the students an opportunity to develop their advocacy skills.
Participation in Moot Court Competition enhances researching skill of a
student and also prepare a student to respond to an unease situation. It also
helps in building confidence in a law student. Mooting gives a practical court
room experience to a law student.
The Moot Court Society, Department of Law, University of North Bengal
consitituted with the following members. Dr. Sujit Kumar Biswas
(Chairperson), Miss Neelam Lama, Dr. Dipankar Debnath. Mr.Subhajit
Bhattacharjee & Ms. Ashima Rai. The Student members are, Miss Megha
Acharya and Debarpan Gobinda Biswas.

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The Moot Court Society has also organised following competition in order to
encourage the students of Department of Law, University of North Bengal:
1. Intra-Departmental Client Counselling Competition;
2. Intra-Departmental Moot Court Competition;
3. Intra-Departmental Mock Trial Competition.
III. ORGANISING COMMITTEE
An organising committee for smooth holding of Regional Moot Court
Competition on 25th March, 2023 is constituted of the following persons:
Prof. (Dr.) Gangotri Chakraborty (Advisor);
Prof. (Dr.) Rathin Bandyopadhyay (Director);
Dr. Sujit Kumar Biswas (Chairperson);
Dr. Dipankar Debnath (Convenor);
Ms. Prerna Lepcha Head, Department of Law, University of North Bengal
(Member);
Ms. Neelam Lama (Member);
Dr. Sangeeta Mandal Biswas(Member);
Dr. Sanyukta Moitra (Member);
Dr. Soma Dey Sarkar (Member);
Dr. Chandrani Chatterjee (Member);
Dr. Sanjay Dutta (Member);
Ms. Tania Basu Majumdar (Member);
Mr. Shubhojeet Shome (Member);
Mr. Subhajit Bhattacharjee (Member);
Ms. Suparna Bandyopadhyay (Member);
Ms. Ashima Rai (Member).

IV. RULES OF THE COMPETITION

Preliminary selection of the teams shall be made on first come first serve basis.
The competition has been divided into semi-final rounds and final round.
Therefore, selection of the teams shall be made on the basis of marks (top four)
scored in the memorials.
IV.I. ROUNDS OF THE COMPETITON
The Regional Moot Court Competition shall comprise of the following two
rounds:

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a. Semi-Final Rounds and
b. Final Round.
IV.II. LANGUAGE:
The language of the competition will be English.
IV.III. ELIGIBILITY FOR PARTICIPATION:
Students pursuing 3 years/5 years undergraduate LL.B. degree course are
eligible to participate in this competition.
Only one team can participate from each institution.
IV.IV.COMPOSITION OF PARTICIPATING TEAMS:
Composition of the participating teams shall be:
Each team shall consist of three (3) members. Two designated as speaker and
one as researcher.
The researcher may be permitted to argue as speaker only in case of illness or
any unforeseen event, but a written permission of the Moot Court Convener in
such case shall be mandatory.
IV.V. DRESS CODE:
The participants shall adhere to the following when they shall be present in
any court room during the competition:
1. Girls: Black salwar and white kurta or white shirt and black trousers along
with black coat and black shoes;
2. Boys: White shirt, black trousers and black tie along with black coat and
black shoes.
Note: (a) The participating teams shall also adhere to the above-mentioned
dress code while attending the inaugural and valedictory ceremonies of the
Competition.
(b) The aforesaid uniform must not bear any sign, identification mark or logo
of any institution, college or university and violation of same shall cause
immediate disqualification.

IV.VI.PARTICIPATION AND REGISTRATION

a. Team should register provisionally by sending mail to mcs.nbu.
[email protected] by 20th February, 2023 with the subject “Registration for
Regional Moot Court Competition, 2023” through an authorised official e-
mail id.

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b. On receiving the mail, the participants will be notified the Team Code
upon confirmation of the participation.
c. A soft copy of duly filled in Registration form shall be mailed at
[email protected].
d. On reporting at the Department during the competition each team has to
pay registration fee (as mentioned in the Registration fee clause) along with
the hard copy of the Registration Form (the scanned copy of the Registration
form has to be sent on or before 20th February, 2023 via mail to
[email protected] as a provisional registration).
e. No change in the names of the participants shall be permitted unless the
same has been communicated to the organisers a week prior to the event in
exceptional circumstances only after due proof has been attached.
f. No certificates shall be provided at the time of Registration. The same shall
be provided after the Valedictory Ceremony scheduled on 25 th March, 2023.
No certificates/mementos shall be couriered/posted and no request for sending
certificates and mementos through post/courier shall be entertained.

IV.VII. MEMORIAL SUBMISSION

The following requirements for memorial must be strictly followed by the
participants:
a. All memorials submitted for all purposes of the Competition shall strictly
adhere to the rules of the Competition. Each Team participating in the
Competition must prepare one Memorial on behalf of
Petitioner(s)/Appellant(s) and one on behalf of the Respondent(s). Further
each team has to submit 6 hard copies of the Memorials from each side. Non-
compliance will entail a penalty of 1 point per copy not submitted.
b. Petitioner(s)/Appellant(s) memorials are required to have a Blue cover and
Respondent(s) memorials are required to have a Red cover. The memorials
shall not contain any form of identification apart from the team code. If any
such identification or mark, symbol, etc. which has the effect of identifying
the team is found on the memorial, then it shall result in instant
disqualification. A penalty of 1 mark shall be levied in case the memorial is
submitted in any other format or as a multiple file by the team. The hard copy
of memorial must be exact replica of the soft copy submitted with the

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Organisers. Any difference in the same will result in disqualification from the
Competition.
c. Each Team must send a soft copy of their memorials in PDF format only,
for evaluation by 7th March, 2023 on or before 11:59 PM to
[email protected] with the subject “Memorials for National Moot
Court Competition, Department of Law, and University of North Bengal”.
The hard copies of the memorials (6 copies for each side) have to be sent to
the following address on or before 10th March, 2023. No extensions will be
granted with respect to this deadline.
d. Address to which hard copies of memorials are to be couriered:
To,
The Head of the Department,
Department of Law, University of North Bengal
Raja Rammohanpur,P.O.: N.B.U.
District: Darjeeling, Pin Code: 734013,West Bengal

IV.VIII. GUIDELINES FOR FORMATTING MEMORIALS

IV.VIII.I. STRUCTURE OF MEMORIAL
The memorials must contain the following:
a. Cover Page;
b. Table of Contents;
c. Index of Authorities;
d. Statement of Jurisdiction;
e. Statement of Facts (Argumentative statement of facts would attract
penalties);
f. Issues raised;
g. Questions of Law /Summary of Arguments;
h. Arguments Advanced;
i. Prayer.
Appendix (Optional);
Exhibits (Optional).
IV.VIII.II.TEAM CODE

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The Team Code must be ascribed on the top right corner of the cover page.
Team Codes shall be intimated to participants through email on or before 5th
March, 2023.
IV.VIII.III. CONTENT SPECIFICATION
The following content specification must be strictly adhered to:
a.Font and Size: Times New Roman, 12 pts.
b.Line Spacing:1.5 lines.
c.Footnotes: Follow Blue Book 20th Edition.
d.Page Margins: 1 inch on all sides
The Hard Copies of the Memorial shall be printed on only one side.
The citation should be in compliance with the 20th edition of Bluebook.
Speaking footnotes or Endnotes are discouraged.
It is to be noted that display of any sign, identification mark or logo of any
institution, college or university in the memorial or in any other document is
strictly prohibited and violation of same shall cause immediate
disqualification.

V. SCORING AREA
AREA OF SCORING POINTS
Memorial 20
Application facts 15
Understanding of laws and 20
procedures
Use of authorities and precedents 05
Response to questions and 25
articulation
Advocacy skills, court craft and 15
demeanour
TOTAL 100

VI.TIME FOR ORAL ROUNDS

VI.I. PRELIMINARY ROUNDS AND QUARTER FINAL ROUNDS

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There shall be no preliminary rounds and quarter final rounds. Based on the
marks scored in the memorials, top four teams shall be invited for semi-final
rounds and final round.
VI.II. SEMI-FINAL ROUNDS AND FINAL ROUND
Each team will get a total of 60 minutes to present their case.
One speaker shall not use more than 25 minutes of the total time.
Each team shall get 5 minutes for rebuttal and 5 minutes for sur- rebuttal (if
required).
This will be a knockout round.
VI.III. MAXIMUM TIME ALLOTED
The maximum time provided would include the time that each team may want
to reserve for their rebuttal. At the commencement of each sessions the team
shall notify the Court Officer as to the division of time between two the 2
speakers (including rebuttal).
VII.SCOUTING
Teams shall not be allowed to observe the orals of another team, unless they
have been officially knocked-out of the competition. Scouting is strictly
prohibited. Scouting by any team shall entail instant disqualification.
VIII. ACCOMMODATION AND TRAVEL
a. No accommodation and travel facilities shall be provided.
b. Food shall be provided to all teams by the organiser.
c. The team after reaching Siliguri must report at the Department of Law,
University of North Bengal.
IX. REGISTRATION FEE
a. Registration fee per team is fixed for Rs. 2000/-.
b. Registration shall be made on the date of competition i.e. on 25 th March,
2023.
c. Registration fees must be paid in Department of Law at the registration
desk, in cash.
d. No online payment shall be entertained.

X. MISCELLANEOUS

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a. If any one of the members of a team is notified or informed of any detail or
information concerning the Competition, it shall be deemed as if the said team
as a whole has been duly been notified or informed.
b. The copyright in the memorials submitted by the teams shall vest with the
Department of Law, University of North Bengal. The acceptance of such
vesting is a precondition to participation in the Competition.
c. In case of any doubt in the understanding or interpretation of any matter
concerning the Competition, the decision of the Organising Committee shall
be final and binding.
d. The organisers shall resolve unanticipated or unexpected contingencies, if
any, and the decision of the Organising Committee in this regard shall be final.
The acceptance of any such decisions of the Organising Committee is a
precondition to participation in the Competition.
e. The organisers reserve the right to use, amend, alter, vary or change, in any
manner whatsoever, the Rules governing the Competition, which would be
communicated to the teams within a reasonable period of time.

X. CONTACT DETAILS
Any query relating to the moot court competition or relating to travel and
accommodation shall be asked by sending mail to [email protected].
However, participants are free to contact following student co-ordinators, if
require.
Students Coordinators

a. Megha Acharya- 9083194891

b. Debarpan Gobinda Biswas- 9641418383

Faculty Coordinator

a. Dr. Dipankar Debnath-9932906953

b. Mr. Subhajit Bhattacharjee-9933576879

XI. LIST OF IMPORTANT DATES

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SPECIFICATIONS DATES

Last date of provisional 20th February, 2023

registration by sending scanned
copy of Registration Form and
Travel & Accommodation form.

Last date of Seeking Clarification 25th February, 2023

Date of Releasing Common 28th February, 2023

Clarification

Date of intimation of Team Codes 5th March, 2023

Last Date of Sending the soft 7th March, 2023

Copies of Memorials

Last Date on which the Hard 10th March, 2023

Copies of Memorials must reach
Department of Law

Date of Announcement of Result 15th March, 2023

regarding memorials

Date of Competition 25th March, 2023

XII. MOOT PROPOSITION

1. Mandiana is a country in South Asia, having a population of over 140 crore. It is a

country which got independence from British after the end of the Second World War.
It has unique and distinct features having people of various religious beliefs, faiths,
caste, creed along with their myriad social credence and rituals. The country along
within its geographical limits is divided into various states. The country having a
federal polity, a written constitution vouched by its people to make it a socialist
secular democratic republic. The country treats alike people of all faith, and there is
no uniform civil code in the country of Mandiana.

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2. Mandiana is a multi party democracy. Since independence, Mandiana has
experienced various political movements and upheavals regarding various demands,
and the state of Mandiana aptly engaged and tried to bring a political solution to each
of such demands within its existing constitutional framework. In its entire political
history of being an independent, sovereign state, national emergency was issued once
for about 20( twenty months),but common people, public spirited lawyers, politicians
fought on streets and legal battles in constitutional courts to bring back its democratic
polity.
3. Mandiana kept experiencing an unbated increase in crime rate every year. These
crimes majorly included offences against women, children and terrorist activities. As
per the National Criminal Records Bureau (“NCRB”), these offences grew by 500%
between the year 2015 and 2020. Mandiana had special laws to deal with terrorist
activities but they were rarely pressed into action.These laws included Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (“UAPA”); National Investigative Agencies Act,
2008 (“NIA Act”).
4. Arnab Nandi is pursuing his studies in law from a government college in the city
of Westhall which is supposed to be the cultural capital of Mandiana. Westhall is the
capital city of Calicus, a state situated on the eastern borders of Mandiana. He also
runs his own twitter handle where he posts his comments which are majorly critiques
of the government both at the State & Union. Arnab as a person is very opiniated and
have an independent view on various social and political issues.
5. Recently the state of Calicus saw and experienced a mass teacher recruitment scam
where money worth rupees crores were seized from of its officials and their
acquaintances of the Teacher recruitment board. An acquaintance of a very high-
ranking official of the Teacher recruitment board involved in the recruitment scam
was arrested and cash worth rupees 50 (fifty) crore was seized from her apartment.
Almost all High echelons of the teacher recruitment board along with its minister
were arrested. Monies worth rupees 500 crores were recovered from various places
with an insinuation that more is likely to be recovered. The Central agencies were
called upon, but after the media attention died down the investigation was carried out
in a snail’s space, and the genuine teacher candidates were left in lurch.

6. Arnab Nandi has been a staunch proponent of protection of rights. He has gained
popularity in state of Calicus due to his constant presence on his twitter. On

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20.04.2022, he posted a blog on his twitter which was titled as “DO AWAY WITH
THE PRESENT STATE AND UNION GOVERNMENT OF THE DAY “…..that
scam happens to be the order of the day. The biggest beneficiaries’ of the scams are
high ranking officials and ministers, who from this ill- gotten money buy comforts of
life, win elections, buys people’s mandate, sent their children to Europe and America
for education., their medical expenses are billed in the best private facilities of the
world, only to see all our institutions, be it health or education becomes feckless and
inept progressing towards state paralysis. He summed up by saying as both the
Governments are hands in gloves and the judiciary intimidated so no justice should be
expected.” His post received both hot and cold responses. Arnab also said that soon he
shall plan a peaceful protest against the rampant corruption of both the government.
Rumours spread that he is planning an unlawful assembly. Based on the cryptic
information received by the police, his calls were being intercepted.

7. On 26.04.2022, Arnab Nandi posted on his social media accounts that he is

planning to stage a peaceful protest along with his activist friends in the capital city of
Westhall and requested all others to join him. The same day many protestors gathered
in large numbers. The protests continued for a few days and during the protest Arnab
gave several speeches before the mass gathering requesting them to keep raising their
voices against the arbitrary and unconstitutional acts of the government. He also said
we should keep fighting at all costs and must do whatever it takes. He promised to
provide all the logistical support to the protestors. One of the protestors recorded his
video and posted the clippings of such video on social media. Thereafter, few reports
of violence were reported in the adjoining district. The police then reached the protest
spot to stop the protest; however, there were physical altercations. The reason for the
physical altercation is unclear. The entire incident also got large media coverage from
the print to television to digital news outlets/platforms.

8. Arnab Nandi was arrested from the protest site and an FIR [FIR No. 37/2022] was
registered against him under Sections 13, 16, of the UAPA; Sections r/w section
124A of IPC . The Union Government on request of the State Government directed
the National Investigation Agency (“NIA”) to carry out further investigation in the
matter. Case diaries and all materials collected by the police including the call

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recordings were handed over to NIA. While the investigation was pending, Arnab bail
application was rejected by the Special Court constituted under the NIA Act.
9. During investigation Arnab admitted that the contents of video clipping shared
online and his twitter handle were true but were being quoted out of context. After the
interrogations got completed by NIA Arnab was remanded to judicial custody. While
investigation was pending, the Special Court allowed the NIA officers to collect voice
samples from the accused in order to match it with the call recordings which had
incriminating conversations.
10. The Special Court took cognizance against Arnab based on the chargesheet
submitted by the NIA. While taking cognizance, the court framed all the charges
which were pressed in FIR .

11.The prosecution submitted video clippings which were shared online as evidence.
The prosecution also submitted newspaper articles which stated that protesters led by
Arnab caused disruptions in public places. The transcriptions of conversation and call
recordings were submitted in a pen-drive along with an electronic evidence certificate
u/s 65B(4) of Evidence Act, 18723 (“IEA”). The copy of electronic evidence was
given to the accused after the commencement of trial.
12. After the prosecution evidence was closed, the Special Court examined Arnab
Nandi u/s 313 of CrPC. Arnab informed that he is innocent as he has only staged a
peaceful protest. He further informed that he was subject to custodial violence and
certain inculpatory statements were elicited from him. Thereafter, during the defence
evidence stage, Arnab submitted that the call recordings merely contain his
conversations with friends about his regular college days, sundry talks about political
and social issues of the country and his daily endeavours, both in college and outside
college, and such conversations are insufficient to prove his guilt beyond reasonable
doubt. He also submitted that the video clippings are being shown out of context.
Moreover, the newspapers articles are nothing but an exaggeration of facts, and public
disruptions were caused by some other fringe elements that came only to disrupt the
peaceful protest. Moreover he contested the fact that in present time when technology
has provided social platform where you can engage with people all around the globe,
you get comments which are sometimes unsolicited, but never to overpower a
democratically elected government. He also submitted that people on the streets were
out of sheer frustration of the mass recruitment scam, and they are youth who are

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jobless and due their exuberance, the streets got filled. The government out of fear of
growing unpopularity and to tame the protest the government has brought the charges
against him.Arnab all through the trial maintained that it was his fundamental right to
protest and moreover sedition laws have been abolished in most democratic nations
and the draconian laws are designed to quell peaceful protest and silence government
detractors.

13. After hearing the final arguments, the Special Court found that the prosecution has
established its case beyond reasonable doubt. While convicting Arnab Nandi, the
court heavily relied upon the electronic evidence and the same was weighed as
primary evidence. The court also relied on the newspaper cuttings and the version of
the investigating agency. The court further stated that the defence has failed to
disprove the onus and their story fails to inspire confidence. The court also found that
Arnab’s post and speeches were directly connected with the unlawful activity and
violence. Arnab preferred an appeal against conviction before the High Court.
However, the High Court confirmed the conviction and held that there is no reason to
interfere with the order of the Special Court.

14. Arnab Nand now files an SLP [Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 198 of
2023] under Article 136 against the impugned order of the High Court which upheld
conviction by the Special Trial Court. In addition to various other grounds
challenging their conviction, the appellant-accused submitted that the Special Court,
by convicting, and the High Court by confirming the conviction, committed a gross
miscarriage of justice by wrongly applying legal principles and statutes.
The SLP was listed before the Supreme Court. Accordingly, the following issues were
framed in the respective petitions

a. Whether section 124A of IPC is hit by fundamental rights of Indian

Constitution?
b. Whether Sedition Laws violates the Doctrine of Basic Structure of the
Constitution of India and the Rule of Law?
c. Whether the trial court erred in applying the procedural laws correctly based
on the facts and circumstances of the case?

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 d. Whether the special Court erred in convicting Arnab Nandi for the offences
u/s 13, 16 of UAPA; r/w section 124 A of IPC?

NOTE:
a. Law of Mandiana is in parimateria for Union of India and applicable to the State of
Calicus.
b. Any similarity of this moot problem with any factual situation is purely
coincidental.
c. Participants are free to frame other issues as well.

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