MSRCL INTRA-COLLEGE MOOT COURT COMPETITION 2015 - PROBLEM
11th April 2015 (Sat – 1.30 PM onwards)
(IV, VI, VIII Semester – 11th April 2015)
CHILD RIGHTS ADVOCACY FOUNDATION VS. THE REPUBLIC OF HINDUSTAN
The Parliament of Hindustan enacted and put in place a law by name “The Juvenile Justice (Care and
Protection of Children) Act, 2000” with the laudable object of engendering welfare and well-being of juveniles.
The said Act unequivocally delineated a juvenile as a person not attaining the age of his/her 18th year of age.
The print and electronic media in the Republic of Hindustan had blown out of proportion the incidents of
offences of rape, murder, kidnapping, and similar such offences committed by juveniles against the girl child &
women. Certain women empowering organizations, having been heavily charged with and carried away by these
media stories had been actuated to conduct a random survey on the incidents of serious bodily offences committed
against women by the juveniles. The survey shockingly and stupendously disclosed that a considerable number
of such offences are committed against women by juveniles.
Basing on the findings of the said survey, the women organizations had successfully lobbied with the key
functionaries of the ruling party at the Central Government and parliamentarians belonging to different political
parties for initiating Amendments to the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 for treating juveniles in between the age of 16
to 18 as adults for the purpose of conducting trial and awarding of punishment in cases of serious bodily offences
against women, Consequently, the said Amendment was successfully made to the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000. The
said Amendment clearly provided that any juvenile in between the age of 16 to 18 years commits any offence of
rape, murder, kidnapping, abduction and offences of such analogous nature then such offender shall be treated as
an adult offender only. Resultantly, the punishment awarded would be the same like in the case of the adult
offenders in similar such offences by treating the juveniles on par with the adult offenders.
The said Amendment was challenged by a leading child rights group by name “Child Rights Advocacy
Foundation”, a leading Non-Governmental Organization spearheading the cause of child rights and welfare in the
Republic of Hindustan before the Supreme Court seeking declaration that it is invalid, void and unconstitutional
on various grounds inter alia:
-
such Amendment was against the very spirit of the International Covenants like United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Children to which the Republic of Hindustan was a signatory;
-
such Amendment was in flagrant flouting of the constitutional provisions & core principles of juvenile
justice; that such Amendment was contrary to the established judicial precedents; that such Amendment,
If implemented would make juveniles into hardened and habitual criminals; that such Amendment would
dehumanize the criminal administration of justice;
-
such Amendment founded on the skewed survey was far from the reality at ground level etc.
However, the State of Hindustan strongly defended the said Amendment on the ground that the lowering
of the age of juveniles in regard to serious offences against women was imperative in the light of early maturity
and precocity of the child in the era of globalization, easy access to crime and pornography in the internet and
increasing incidents of rape, murder, kidnapping etc., committed by juveniles in every succeeding year, to
add more deterrence to the existing law and changing face of juvenile laws across the World.
The Child Rights Advocacy Foundation filed a Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution in the
Supreme Court of the Republic of Hindustan challenging the Amendments made to the Juvenile Justice Act,
2000.
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Hindustan was pleased to admit the present petition & further framed the
under mentioned issues for final hearing of the matter.
1) Whether the petitioner has locus-standi to file the present petition?
2) Whether the contention advanced by the petitioner that the impugned Amendment is against the International
covenants, constitutional ideals, core principles of juvenile justice and established judicial precedents is legally
tenable?
3) Whether the contention advanced by the respondent that lowering of the age of Juveniles in the light of survey
findings & early precocity of child is legally sustainable?
4) Whether the impugned Amendment dehumanizes the criminal administration of Justice as contended by the
petitioner?
Note:
Participants are at liberty to frame further relevant issues.
The laws, Constitution, population, geographical area, historical heritage, crime rate and culture of the Republic of
Hindustan are in pari materia with those of India.
The above moot proposition is based on hypothetical facts and circumstances.
MSRCL INTRA-COLLEGE MOOT COURT COMPETITION 2015 - RULES
11th April 2015 (Sat – 1.30 PM onwards)
1. ELIGIBILITY
1.1 The competition is open only for IV, VI and VIII semester B.A.LL.B students of MSRCL.
2. LANGUAGE
2.1 The language for the event shall be English.
3. REGISTRATION
3.1 Last Date for Registration shall be 17th March 2015, before 4 PM with Ms. Ujwala.
4. TEAM COMPOSITION
4.1 The team shall consist of minimum of two and maximum of three members.
5. DRESS CODE
5.1 The dress code for all the participants (boys & girls) in the Competition shall be white Shirt,
black trouser along with black blazer and black shoes.
6. MEMORIALS
6.1The teams shall prepare and submit memorials for both the sides. The memorials submitted
shall not be returned.
6.2The memorials shall be typed, printed on single side A4 size sheet, with 1.5 line spacing in
Times New Roman font size of 12 and for footnote size shall be of 10. The memorials shall
have page numbers on the top right side of the page. The cover page of the memorial shall
contain the cause title.
6.3No amendments of memorials shall be allowed once submitted by the teams.
6.4Memorials must be spiral bound. Covers of the Memorials for Petitioner shall be ‘Blue Colour’
and for the Respondent it shall be ‘Red Colour’.
6.5The memorials shall not exceed 15 pages. These fifteen pages shall exclude the cover page,
the table of contents, list of abbreviations, the index of authority, the statement of jurisdiction,
the statement of facts, the issues and prayer. Substantive footnoting as far as possible shall be
avoided by the teams.
6.6The memorials shall be submitted latest by 30th March 2015, 4.00PM to Ms. Ujwala. Late
submissions will carry penalty of deduction of 2 marks each day of delay.
6.7The memorials shall not contain the names of the participants on any page and violation of
this rule shall disqualify the memorials from evaluation.
7. ORAL ARGUMENTS
7.1The teams shall present their case on the side decided by draw of lots. Draw of lots shall take
place on 9th April, 2015 at 3.00 PM
7.2Each team shall get a total of 20 minutes to present their case.
7.3The team members shall have the discretion to decide as to the division of time between the
speakers, subject to a maximum of 12 minutes per speaker.
8. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
8.1The oral submission of the team shall be judged for thirty marks on the following parameters.
Knowledge and application of Facts and Laws (10 marks); Legal research (10 marks); Court
Mannerisms (5 marks); Presentation, persuasiveness and ability to answer questions (5 marks).
8.2The written submission made by the teams shall be assessed for twenty marks on the following
parameters. Knowledge of law and facts (10 marks); Grammar and Style (5 marks); Quality
of Research (5 marks).
8.3The marks for written submissions will be considered for the position of Winners, RunnersUp and Best Memorial.
9. AWARDS
9.1There shall be award for Winners, Runners-up, Best Advocate and Best Memorial.
10. MISCELLANEOUS
10.1 The decision of the judges is final and the organizers shall have the right of final
interpretation of the rules of the event.
10.2 The organizers shall have the right to cancel the event in case of participation of less than
10 teams.
10.3 The organizers shall have the right to change the dates of the event and the participants
will be given notice of such changes.
10.4 The participants shall maintain punctuality and discipline throughout the event.
13 March 2015 (Fri)
17 March 2015
30 March 2015 (Mon)
9 April 2015 (Thu)
11 April 2015 (Sat)
(1.30 PM onwards)
Important Dates
Release of the problem and rules of the competition
Last Date for Registration
Last date for submission of memorials
Draw of Lots
Moot Court Competition