2nd Vox Jurist Virtual National Debate Competition @ Shambhunath Institute of Law ,2020

It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” - Joseph Joubert

ABOUT THE INSTITUTION

Shambhunath Institute of Law was established with the objective of imparting quality legal education to the law aspirants of the Indian society with deliberate emphasis on the law aspirants of less privileged society under the able guidance of Dr. K.K. Tewari, Secretary Utthan. Our Institute is affiliated to Prof. Rajendra Singh University, Prayagraj and approved by the Bar Council of India, New Delhi.

Shambhunath Institute of Law has set the benchmark for conducting activities in such a way that the students not only enjoy but also learn from it. With same perspective in mind the institute organized a National Debate Competition named 1st Vox Jurist – Voice of Legal Experts which was held on the 19th October, 2019.

The chief guest of the event Hon’ble Justice K.N. Vajpaee and Guest of Honor Hon’ble Justice Pankaj Bhatia enlightened the students and urged them to work hard, be enthusiastic and participative. Dignitaries such as Retd. Justice Arun Tandon and Mr. Manish Goyal, Addtnl. Advocate General of State of Uttar Pradesh were also present to grace the event. Dr. K.K. Tewari, Secretary Utthan, and Dr. R.K. Singh, CAO SGI in presence of Prof. B.P. Singh and Dr. Rajni Tripathi, appreciated the entire fraternity of SIL for the successful completion of event. The team of NLSIU Bangalore and D.Y. Patil University, Pune emerged as the winner of the competition. Not only this, they also bagged the Best Speaker award for the motion and the Best Speaker award for speaking against the motion.

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

Shambhunath Institute of Law organized its 1st National Debate Competition on 19th October, 2019. The National Debate Competition was organized by the member of the Core Team of the Institute. The core team consisted of the following Faculty Convener: Ms. Apoorva Singh and student convener Sarve Nazir, Samrat Vikram Singh and Sarika Mishra.

The debate was held on the various topics, different topics were assigned for the different rounds. Not just debate but the participant also submitted their written submissions on the topic “Legislation of Adultery – A Boon or Bane”. The topics for the oral submissions were as follows: Quarter Finals: Corporate Social Responsibility, Semi-Finals: Journalism – Public Voice or a tool of a political party, and for the Finals: Democracy in India – a success or a failure. Top eight teams were selected on the basis of their written submission. The student submitted their oral submission for the motion as well as against the motion on the basis of draw of lots. The participants were judged by the Advocates of the Allahabad High Court. The judges of the competition were Adv. Mr. Mehul Khhare, Adv. Mrs. Pragya Pandey, Adv. Mr. Saksham Srivastav, and Adv. Mr. Shubham Agarwaal for quarters and semi-final. For the finals judges were Prof. Mrs. Asha Lal (Department of Philosophy, AU), Prof. Mrs. Sonal Shankar (Department of Law, AU) and Prof. Mr. Javed Akhtar (Department of Law, AU).

The debate started with eight shortlisted teams, and ended between two finalists. The teams which made to the Final were ICFAI Dehradun and Cross Participation team including NLSIU Bangalore and D.Y Patel University, Pune. The speaker from ICFAI Dehradun was Ishan Mishra and Shivansh Srivastava, speaker from NLSIU Bangalore Anahad Narayan and from D.Y. Patel Simran Madhyan. The winning team was of NLSIU Bangalore and D.Y. Patel University, Pune. The Best Speaker for the motion was won by Anahad Narayan and the Best Speaker against the motion was won by Simran Madhyan.

RULES OF THE COMPETITION

The Vox Jurist Virtual National Debate Competition will be held from 27th to 28th November, 2020. The participants will have to send a Written Submission after they register themselves successfully on the basis of which Top 16 team will be shortlisted.

ELIGIBILITY

Members of the team must be valid Undergraduate students pursuing a recognized Bachelor of Law program. (NOTE – Bachelor of Law means a 3 year or post-graduation or 5 years integrated course for Indian Students or an Undergraduate Degree in Law recognized by the Bar Council of India.)

Participants of only one team from a particular law school or law college would be entertained. In the event if two teams register from same college/law university or law school, the team which first submits the letter signed by the Dean of that Law College/ Law university or Law School shall be given preference and registered.

TEAM COMPOSITION

Each team shall consist of two speakers. The organizers will assign a code to each team as soon as they register themselves successfully.

Cross participation is allowed, which means that in the event if a team comprise members from two different Law Colleges/ Law University or Law Schools their participation would be entertained and on them the Eligibility Rule no. II would not be applicable.

REGISTRATION PROCEDURE

The teams will have to register themselves at CLICK HERE

by completing and submitting the registration form available on the mentioned link no later than 10:00 PM [IST] on 12th November, 2020.

Upon successful submission of Registration form, the teams will receive an email from the Organizers, providing them with their Team Code and informing them of their successful Registration.

If teams do not receive such an email, it may contemporaneously send an email with its registration details to sil@siet.in or directly contact the members of the organizing committee.

Registration Forms will have to be completed and submitted with all material particulars by the team. Please note that incomplete Registration Form shall not be accepted. The Composition of the team cannot be changed once a team has registered.

REGISTRATION FEES

The registration fee is Rs. 800/- (Rupees Eight Hundred only) per team. Team must make the payment of such amount through Google Pay, UPI no. 7007869186, UPI ID: nisheeth.mohan.121@okaxis or

NEFT/RTGS in account of:

- Account Holder: Khushboo Ali

- Account no: 50100367054868

- IFSC Code: HDFC0000226

- Branch: Civil Lines, Allahabad.

The registration fees shall be paid at the time of registration and receipt of fees shall be attached to the form.

LANGUAGE

The mode of language in the competition shall be English. During the oral submission if the participants use any other medium other than English they will be subject to the mark deduction.

ANONYMITY

Each participating team shall be allotted a team code upon registration.

The team shall not disclose their identity anywhere in their written Submission and instead use the code allotted.

The team shall not disclose their identity anywhere in the oral submission. (Identity includes – Name of the participants, Name of The College/Institution/University/Law School or any personal or official detail related to the participant except the team code allotted to them)

Non-compliance with the Rule Anonymity II and III shall result in immediate disqualification of the participant/team.

The decision of organizing committee in this regard shall be final.

WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS

I. The Written Submission shall mandatorily comply with the requirements of the following:

Cover Page (It shall include)

Team Code
Topic of the Written Submission
Name of the Competition
Name of the Organizing College.

Written Submission (It should be in following format)

Font Style: Times New Roman
Font Size: 12
Line Spacing: 1.5
Margin: 1(inch) each side.
Footnote: FS: Times New Roman, FSi. 10, LS: 1. Format (20th Blue Book)

II. The Written Submission should be of Minimum 1000 words and Maximum 1500 words. Plagiarism shall not exceed 25% of Written Submission.

III. The topic for the written submission is Fake News: The Digital Pandemic. The written submission must be in Pdf format and submitted latest by 20th November, 2020 at voxjurist.debate@gmail.com

ORAL SUBMISSIONS

The competition shall consist of the Preliminary, Quarter Final, Semi Final and Final Rounds only.

The language of the oral submission should be English.

Each team would be given 10 minutes to present their oral argument, subject to a maximum of 6 minute per speaker in the preliminary rounds. For Quarter Finals, team would be given 15 minutes to present their oral arguments; the team shall save time for rebuttals in the given time. For Semi-final and Finals each team would be given 20 minutes; the team shall save time for rebuttals in the given time.

Before the beginning of the Oral Rounds of any team, the Speakers of the team shall inform the Moderator regarding the allocation of time between themselves and the time reserved for rebuttal. Once informed, the time shall not change.

Judges, at their discretion, may extend oral argument time up to a maximum of 5 minute per team, for only Semi-Final and Final.

No additional documentation or screen-sharing will be allowed and any query or question raised should be send privately to the moderator.

The Participants shall ensure good Internet Connection. In case of a poor connection, the room will wait for maximum 5 minutes, after which the round would be conducted ex-parte.

If a team scheduled to take part in a round does not appear for 5 minutes after the scheduled start of the rounds, the rounds shall be conducted ex-parte and the scoring shall be done as if the defaulter team had been presenting and arguing.

During the Preliminary, Quarter Final, Semi-Final and Final, each team shall have to submit their oral arguments either for the motion or against the motion. The motion and fixture for the rounds will be decided by the draw of lots.

The teams would qualify to other rounds on the basis of marks obtained in the oral submission. The top 8 (Eight) teams on the basis of their marks shall qualify to the Quarter Finals. If there is a draw between two teams, the marks of written submission would be used as a tie breaker.

The Quarterfinals, Semi-Finals and Finals Rounds shall be Knock Out rounds.

CONDUCTING OF ROUNDS VIRTUALLY THROUGH VIDEO CONFERCING

All the rounds for the competition shall be conducted virtually by way of Video Conferencing through a video conferencing platform. The video conferencing platform would be Google Meet. The detail of the video conferencing would be given prior to the rounds.

The Meeting ID and Password and Link will be informed to the teams through email.

All the participants shall keep their microphone on mute at all times, except when addressing arguments. A speaker will unmute his/her microphone only after being invited to do so by the moderator and Judges.

The Semi-Final and Final rounds will be live on our YouTube channel.

MISCELLANEOUS

I. The dress code for

(i) Gentlemen: western formals

(ii) Ladies: western formals or Indian Formals

II. All queries may be addressed to voxjurist.debate@gmail.com or directly contact the organizers.

III. Any references to identity of a team’s institution or individual team members, either during oral arguments or in the written submission may lead to disqualification of the team, which shall be at the sole discretion of the organizers.

IV. The organizers shall not be responsible for any loss due to slow or non-functional internet connection during the competition.

V. If a team believes that violation of any of the Competition Rules has taken place at any stage of the Competition, the teams shall within half an hour of the completion of the round wherein a violation has allegedly occurred, register a complaint with Organizing Committee. Under no circumstances are the teams allowed to approach the Judges with any complaints.

VI. The organizers reserve the right to amend the rule of the event.

VII. At the end of Oral Rounds of the Vox Jurist Virtual, National Debate Competition 2020, the total scores obtained by each team in each rounds shall be send through email and will be uploaded on the group.

VIII. The Rule shall be strictly adhered to. The organizers reserve the right to disqualify teams for deviating from the rules. The Organizers will resolve any contingencies that may arise and will be the final arbiters regarding any doubts/ grievances. The decision taken by the Organizers shall be final. These Rules are not exhaustive.

-EVALUATION OF WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS.

Sr. No.	Parameters	Maximum Marks
1.	Knowledge and Application of Laws	20
2.	Proper and Articulate Analysis	20
3.	Extent and use of research	20
4.	Clarity, Organization and Presentation	20
5.	Adherence to the norms regarding style grammar and citation of sources	20
6.	Originality and ingeniousness	20

- EVALUATION OF ORAL SUBMISSIONS

Sr. No.	Parameter	Maximum Marks
1.	Knowledge of Subject	20
2.	Ability to communicate thought and emotion and to achieve the overall objectives of speech.	20
3.	Organization and Clarity	20
4.	Delivery and Posture	20
5.	Ability to deal with question and rebuttals concisely and effectively.	20

- AWARDS

Sr. No.	Position Acquired	Awards
1.	Winning Team	Cash Prize – 5,000 Trophy and Certificate
2.	Runner Up	Cash Prize – 2,500 Trophy and Certificate
3.	Best Speaker (for the Motion)	Cash Prize – 1,500 Trophy and Certificate
4.	Best Speaker (against the Motion)	Cash Prize – 1,500 Trophy and Certificate
5.	Best Written Submission	Certificate

Note: All the participant including those who have submitted the written submission will get the participation certificate.

-- IMPORTANT DATES

Sr. No.	Events	Date
1.	Release of Rule Book of Competition	16^th October, 2020
2.	Last Date of Registration	12^th November, 2020
3.	Last Date for Written Submission	20^th November, 2020
4.	Date for Confirmation and results of Written Submission	24^th November, 2020
5.	Preliminary Rounds	27^th November, 2020
6.	Quarter Final	27^th November, 2020
7.	Semi-Final and Final	28^th November, 2020

CONTACT DETAILS: ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Faculty Convener: Ms. Khushboo Ali
Mobile No. 8953891545
Email ID: khushbooali15@gmail.com

Student Convener: Sarve Nazir
Mobile No. 9305579538, 9119954918
Email ID: sarvenazir.2830@gmail.com

Student Coordinators: Samrat Vikram Singh
Mobile No. 7786032204
Email ID: samratsinghbhs@gmail.com

Student Coordinators: Sarika Mishra
Email ID: sarikamishra.8090@gmail.com

Student Coordinators: Mohd. Asad
Email ID: moassad537@gmail.com

Student Coordinator: Vaishnavi Kesarwani

Email ID: gvaishnavi210@gmail.com

OTHER COMMITTEE MEMBERS

1. Brishank Mishra

2. Utkarsh Mishra

3. Shalini Singh

4. Josheca Mukerji

5. Simran Keshari

6. Prayageshwar Upadhyaya

7. Shashank Mishra

Note: Queries related to the event and rule book will only be entertained between 10 AM to 4 PM.

Event Sponsors:

VAKEEL SAHAB PRO