MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY MUMBAI

SURANA & SURANA NATIONAL TRIAL ADVOCACY MOOT COURT & JUDGMENT WRITING
COMPETITION, 2016 WEST
The team from Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai participated in the Surana & Surana
National Trial Advocacy Moot Court & Judgment writing Competition, 2016 West organized by
Surana & Surana International Attorneys at Bharti Vidyapeeth University, Pune from 23rd
September, 2016 to 25th September, 2016.
The team comprised of the following members
1) Yashraj Samant (Speaker Cross Examination & Closing Statement)
2) Neelabh K. Bist (Speaker Chief Examination & Opening Statement)
3) Avani Gupta (Researcher)
4) Sreenidhi G.S. (Researcher)
The team, made it to the finale of the competition and were adjudged the following

1) Runners-Up
2) 4th Best Memorial
3) 3rd Best Student Advocate Yashraj Samant
The competition consisted of 20 teams from the West region including numerous reputed
institutions such as GLC Mumbai, Symbiosis Law School Pune, GNLU Gandhinagar, NLU
Orissa, NUALS Kochi, HNLU Raipur, NUSRL Ranchi, etc. Our team was by far the youngest
team in the competition in which majority of the teams consisted of the final year student
members.
The competition is organized in India in 3 regions North, West and South. There are no further
national and/or International rounds. Thus, as it stands, our University is the 2 nd ranked team in
the West Rounds of the Competition.
The competition was based on trial-advocacy wherein the art of cross-examination and sessionscourt proceedings were tested. The rounds were as follows
1) Preliminary Round 1

2) Preliminary Round 2
3) Quarter Final (8 teams)
4) Semi Finals (4 teams)
5) Final (2 teams)
Our team faced NUALS Kochi in preliminary round 1 as Prosecution and DY Patil, Pune in
preliminary round 2 as Defence and managed to beat both. This put the team at 2 wins out of 2.
The team scored a perfect speaker score of 140 each for both speakers with a total of 362 in
preliminary 2, which remained the highest score for any team throughout the competition.
The team qualified to the quarter finals as the 2nd best team, behind Symbiosis Law School, Pune.
In the quarters, the team faced NLU Orissa (winner of the 2nd best memorial) as Prosecution and
we managed to beat the team. The team qualified for the semi-finals and faced the team of
Symbiosis Law School, Pune (1st & 2nd best student advocates from this team) as Defence and
managed to beat the team in a highly enthralling round.
The team proceeded to the finals and faced the team of Government Law College, Mumbai. The
rounds had the sitting judges from the Honble High Court of Hyderabad and the Honble High
Court of Kerala as the bench for this round. The round was live-streamed on the video-sharing
website YouTube and the video of the same as well as the video of the valedictory competition
can be found on YouTube. Although the team fell short of the ultimate prize in an otherwise
highly competitive round, the efforts were commended by all especially considering the fact that
our team was relatively young.
Considering that our team was full of 2nd Year students and all the teams we faced had students
from the final 2 years of their courses including the team of GLC Mumbai, the achievements were
widely appreciated by judges and organizers alike.
The competition was a success for the University as it put MNLU Mumbai on the mooting map
for the first time in our short yet illustrious history. This was the first time that MNLU Mumbai
won any sort of laurel in a mooting competition. What further sweetened the occasion was that
the young team won 3 prestigious prizes.
The researchers of the team participated in the judgment writing competition, the results of which
will be out on November 10, 2016. Ms. Avani Gupta and Ms. Sreenidhi G.S. wrote the judgment
for the same.

The team is highly indebted to the Honble Vice-Chancellor Sir, The Registrar Sir, Faculty incharge MCS, other faculties, staff and students of MNLU Mumbai for their lovely guidance and
co-operation. We hope that it serves a stepping stone for the University to scale greater heights in
mooting and other competitions as well.