C O N N E C T I N G C O R N E R S

The Legum Wire

Fo r i nqu i r i e s , r e ach us a t :

w w w . l e g u m w i r e . c o m

E m a i l : l e g u m w i r e @ g m a i l . c o m

C o n t a c t N o - 7 8 0 7 2 3 7 0 6 3 / 9 8 1 6 9 9 0 5 5 3

ABOUT

THE ORGANIZATION

Legum wire is an online platform for budding law students which offers opportunities in the form of

competition, events, jobs, relevant to the legal fraternity. The opportunities provided by us includes

Seminars, Workshops, Article Writing Competition, Essay Writing Competition, Blog Writing

Competition and various other law school events conducted by law colleges/Universities across all

over India. The Legum Wire is an open-access blog which gives a platform to the young budding

minds of the legal fraternity to share their beautiful and creative legal thoughts and thereby giving

them the opportunity to broadcast their ability and skill in legal writing. This Website is still in its

nascent stage and as an endeavor to become the beacon of legal education by encouraging the

synthesis of knowledge and best practices we wish to create vast pool of knowledge and wisdom for

our readers to help them open up their minds.

ABOUT

THE COMPETITION

Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is one of the most indispensible parts of the Indian Legal System. The

National PIL drafting competition aims at giving the budding mind of the legal fraternity an

opportunity to understand the practical dynamics of PIL. The objective of the Competition is to

improve and deepen the level analytical and critical thinking by involving the participants in some

real-life practical problems.

Fo r i nqu i r i e s , r e ach us a t :

w w w . l e g u m w i r e . c o m

E m a i l : l e g u m w i r e @ g m a i l . c o m

C o n t a c t N o - 7 8 0 7 2 3 7 0 6 3 / 9 8 1 6 9 9 0 5 5 3

“Individual participation" OR “participation in a team of two" is allowed.

In one team, participants from different universities or schools or colleges are also allowed.·        

The substitution of any Team Member is not allowed after the registration deadline except in

extenuating circumstances and only with permission of the Organizer.

The participating teams can register themselves by filling this Registration Form

https://forms.gle/79RbVLMeAsL7BVDFA  

There shall be a nominal non-refundable registration fee of Rs. 50/- for Single participant and Rs.

80/- for the team of two.  

The participants have to pay the registration fee in the manner hereinafter provided.         

The payment screenshot must be attached within the registration form.   

After the successful registration, each participant or team shall be allotted a unique team code for

further references.

ELIGIBILITY AND TEAM

Eligibility

The Competition shall be open for the students currently pursuing their Bachelor’s Degree in law i.e.

3-Year LL.B. course or 5-Year LL.B. course from any recognized university/school in India.

There is no restriction on the number of entries from any college or university.

Team Composition

HOW TO REGISTER 

  

PAYMENT DETAILS

Payment has to be made through any UPI App (Paytm/Google pay etc.)

If you are facing any problem in making the payment, kindly contact us at 9816990553 or email us

atlegumwire@gmail.com, we could suggest some other methods for your convenience.

ACCOUNT DETAILS

Name: Lakshay Bansal

Bank: UCO Bank

Branch: Solan

Account Number: 06490110105627

IFSC Code: UCBA0000649

PAYTM/GOOGLE PAY/BHIM ON 9816990553

UPI ID - bansal.lakshay2906@okicici

9816990553@paytm

Please mention about the purpose of payment with the name of the participant.

REGISTRATION OPENS - 17TH AUGUST, 2020

LAST DATE TO REGISTER - 20TH SEPTEMBER, 2020

DATE OF SUBMISSION OF DRAFTED PIL MEMORIAL - 30TH SEPTEMBER, 2020

DECLARATION OF RESULT - 10TH OCTOBER, 2020

All the queries and clarifications must be addressed to official mail id of the organizers and the

subject of the mail must read as “PIL COMPETITION QUERY”.

No query without the subject “PIL COMPETITION QUERY” would be entertained.      

There is NO last date to raise any clarifications

No queries otherwise than through a mail, shall be entertained whatsoever the case may be.

Each participating Team must prepare ONE PIL memorial.    

If a participant/team wishes to submit any annexures to support his/her arguments contained in

the memorial [for instance Reports, Commentaries, New Clippings, Pictures, etc.] a compendium

of all the relevant annexures must be prepared and should sent along with the memorial.      

All PIL memorials must reach us on this email address: legumwire@gmail.com till 11:59 P.M.,

September 30, 2020 with the Subject of the email as “PIL Memorial of Team Code- “ABC‟”       

Any submission made after the deadline specified shall attract a penalty of deduction of 0.5 marks

per hour from the aggregate marks.        

No entry made after 24 hours of the deadline shall be accepted at any cost.

In case the memorial of two or more participants/teams is found “exactly identical” to each other,

both the participants/ teams shall be disqualified.

All the Memorials must be submitted in PDF Format (.pdf).       

The body of the submissions must be in the font “Times New Roman‟ with font size 12, with line

spacing of 1.5 and justified. (The Font size for the Headings can be formatted as per the choice of

the participants)

The Footnotes shall be in Times New Roman, size 10, single line spacing, justified.         

Harvard Bluebook (19th Edn.) style of citation must be resorted to throughout the memorials.

The non-adherence of sub-rule (i) shall attract the penalty of 5 marks      

The non-adherence of sub-rule (ii), (iii), and (iv) shall attract the penalty of 1 mark each

discrepancy.

IMPORTANT DATES

1.

2.

3.

4.

QUERIES AND CLARIFICATIONS

      

MEMORIAL GUIDELINES

Submission of PIL Memorials      

Formatting Guidelines

       

Penalties     

The Unique team code in the upper right-hand corner.      

The name of the forum before which the proceedings are being conducted;       

The year of the Competition;       

The name of the case;         

The Cover Page should be Blue in colour.

If a participant/team wishes to submit any annexures to support or supplement his/her

arguments contained in the memorial [for instance: Reports, Commentaries, News Clippings,

Pictures, videos etc.], it can be sent as files attached in the same email which contains the

memorial. HOWEVER, the number of annexures must not exceed 15.        

Each annexure must be properly named as “Team Code- “your code‟Anx. 1” and a reference to

that annexure must be given at relevant places in the footnotes of the memorial.

Content of the Memorial

The PIL Memorial must contain all of, and only, the following components:

1.       Cover page; which should contain

2.      Table of Contents;

3.      Table of Abbreviations;

4.       Index of Authorities;

5.       Statement of Jurisdiction;

6.      Facts of the Case;

7.      Issues Raised;

8.      Summary of Arguments/Pleadings;

(The Summary of arguments should contain a summary of the substance of the arguments, and

should not be a mere reproduction of the various headings and sub headings of arguments)

9.      Arguments Advanced/Pleadings;

(All legal arguments must be limited to the Pleadings/Arguments Advanced section of the

Memorial. The Pleadings/Arguments Advanced and Prayer must not exceed 15 pages)

10.      Prayer.

11.      Table of annexures.

NOTE: The overall length of the memorial shall not exceed 30 pages. Non-compliance shall result in

a penalty of 2 marks for every additional page.

Annexures (optional)    

 

Marking Criteria for Evaluation of the Draft PIL

The following will be the Marking Criteria and the marks allotment for the PIL memorial :

1. Appreciation and Application of Facts. (30) Marks

2. Identification and Articulation of Issues. (10) Marks

3. Application of legal principles. (20) Marks

4. Use of authorities and precedents. (20) Marks

5. Correct Format and Citation (20) Marks

MOOT PROPOSITION

1. WINDIA is the largest democratic country in South Asia. It was the colony of United Kingdom and

imported the concept of Parliamentary Democracy from her. WINDIA has written Constitution with

Independence of Judiciary, Separation of Powers and Secularism as its basic features.

2. WINDIA’s Parliamentary Democracy is having Multi-Party System. There are many national and

regional political parties contributing towards national politics. Amongst all political parties, National

WINDIA Congress (herein after NWC) and Independent Party of WINDIA (herein after IPW) are two

major political parties. In general election of 2018, IPW got simple majority in Lok Sabha which

enabled it to establish its government in center.

3. Considering the simple majority, the ruling party always felt the potential threat to its

Governmental stability not only from the opposition parties but also from some ambitious and

unhappy leaders within the party itself. Few party leaders especially Dr. M. S. Rajarao, a member of

Lok Sabha and senior leader from IPW was feeling ignored and was not happy with way in which he

was being treated by the top party leaders. He considered that being a mass leader as well as person

having strong support within the party he actually deserved to be appointed as minister but

ministership was not given to him by the party.

4. On 18th December, 2018, Central Government had proposed “The National Highway Bill, 2018”.

Many members of Lok Sabha opposed the proposed Bill as they considered the said national

highway as unnecessary due to the availability of alternative state highways. Dr.Rajarao was very

upset as the proposed national highway was going through some of the villages of his constituency.

While discussion was going on new Bill in Lok Sabha, he protested against the Government policy as

it was against farmer’s interest. He said that the proposed national highway would result in the

acquisition of thousands of hectares of fertile land. He also said that if required, he would lead the

farmers of his constituency to strongly oppose the proposed project.

5. 27th Decemeber 2018 was decided to be the date of voting on the bill. Due to the strong opposition

from the opponents, for compelling the attendance of its party members, the party leader in Lok

Sabha, Mr. Sunderlal Shah issued the whip.

6. The bill was passed with narrow majority. While analyzing the results the ruling party leader

suspected that some of the party members would not have voted in favor of bill and found two of its

members that is Dr. M. S. Rajarao and Mr. JD Patel were absent for the voting. Taking cognizance of

the matter, Mr. Sunderlal Shah issued show cause notice to both of them.

7. Both members gave medical reasons to justify their absence. To support his contention Mr. JD

Patel provided required documents but Dr.Rajarao did not provideany documentary proof.

8. After few days, in one television interview, Dr.Rajarao strongly criticized the Governmental policy

towards farmers. He said that Government’s plan to acquire farmers land shows lack of sensitivity on

the part of Government towards farmers.He further expressed his wholehearted support to the

people’s fight for the interestof farmers.

9. Mr. Sunderlal Shah forwarded a petition to the Speaker of Lok Sabha Mr. A. V. Prasadand

requested him to take action against Dr.Rajarao. Both parties were issued thenotice and were asked to

present their side within 5 days. On the 5th day Dr.Rajaraoprayed for the adjournment but it was

rejected.

10. On the basis of the evidences produced by both parties, the Speaker held Dr.Rajarao liable for

anti-party activities. He said that opposing his own party in LokSabha, criticizing Governmental

policy, publicly in an interview and remaining absent for voting after whip issued by party leader

indicates Dr.Rajarao’s disloyalty towards the belief and agenda of his own party.

 

11. By relying upon paragraph 2 (b) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, Hon’ble Speaker

disqualified Dr.Rajarao’s Lok Sabha Memberships. The decision was communicated to Lok Sabha

and it was published in Lok Sabha Bulletin and Government Gazette. While justifying his decision

the Speaker said that in country like WINDIA, political parties should be considered as the blood of

Parliamentary setup. He further observed that voters gave votes to particular candidate as they

supported the agenda of that political party which he was representing and not merely to an

individual candidate. He specifically mentioned that expressing views publicly against the own party

could definitely be construed as anti party act.

12. Dr. Rajarao felt aggrieved and approached Supreme Court. Following are some of the points

which were raised by him. He genuinely considered his stand on proposed bill as rational and in

accordance with the principles of representative democracy.He felt member of Lok Sabha to be

accountable to the people of his constituency and not to the party. He said that paragraph 2 of the

10th Schedule of the Constitution of WINDIA empowered the despotic dictates of the party whips

and high command and it undermines the democratic spirit.

      

13. Dr. Rajarao further emphasized that freedom of speech and expression within the party is

essential feature of inner party democracy. It was his Parliamentary Privilege under Article 105 of

Constitution to speak freely in houses of Parliament, but the anti-defection law is prohibiting honest

and genuine dissent hence it is unconstitutional. He further objected the impartiality of the

proceeding\ before the Speaker, who in spite of holding the Constitutional post continues

membership of his original political party which is in this case, Independent Party of WINDIA. At the

same time, he can continue with the office of Speaker only with the support of majority. He pointed

out that the procedure to deal with this type of matter should actually be accordance with the

procedure governing the post-election dispute. He stressed that the purpose and object of the anti-

defection law should be to ensure loyalty of the member to the electorate and not to the stability of a

particular Government.

Note:

WINDIA is a democratic Country like India and all Indian laws/rules/regulations are similar and

applicable to Indiana.

Disclaimer – This moot problem is imaginary. Any resemblance with any fact, case, person or

character is merely coincidental.

1st Position: Prize: Rs. 600/- and Certificate of Winners.

2nd Position: Prize: Rs 400/- and Certificate of 1st Runners Up.        

3rd Position: Prize: Rs 300/- and Certificate of 2nd Runners Up.        

4th and 5th Position: Prize: Rs 100/- each and Certificate of Merit.

Position 4-10: E-Certificate of Merit

All other participants would be entitled to receive E- participation certificates (E-certificate of

appreciation CAN also be awarded in case of remarkable works).

AWARDS

NOTE: In case of team participation, the co-author to the winning entry, if any, shall share the

prize with the first author.

 

 

Contact Details:

Kindly forward your queries (if any) at legumwire@gmail.com.

For more details contact:7807237063 /9816990553.