A team of students from St. Joseph’s College of Law of Bengaluru won the first prize in the M.K. Nambyar Memorial National Level Moot Court Competition held at Karnataka Law Society’s Raja Lakhamagouda Law College in Belagavi on Sunday.
The competition is held annually in the memory of Constitution lawyer M.K. Nambyar. The moot subjects are centred around the Constitution. The former Attorney General of India K.K. Venugopal, who is an alumnus of the 85-year-old college, sponsors the competition.
Over 40 teams from 10 States participated. They included five teams from National Law Schools from across the country.
The St. Joseph’s College team won ₹50,000 cash prize and a trophy. A team from United World School of Law, Karnavati University, Gujarat, was the runners-up, winning ₹30,000 cash prize and a trophy.
The prize for the Best Speaker Male with a cash award of ₹15,000 and a trophy was shared by B. Mohan Gowda of St. Joseph’s College and Shreevara P. of SDM Law College of Mangaluru.
The Best Speaker Female with ₹15,000 cash prize and a trophy was given to Srushti J. Patil of United World School of Law of Gujarat.
The best memorial prize of ₹15,000 in cash and a trophy went to Symbiosis Law School of Pune. The best researcher prize of ₹10,000 and a trophy was given to Abhavya Sharan from Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University of Lucknow.
The Advocate A.M. Potdar cash prize of ₹6,050 for best mooter was shared between B. Mohan Gowda of St. Joseph’s College and Shreevara. P. of SDM Law College.
Judge of High Court of Karnataka E.S. Indiresh was the chief guest for the valedictory. Judge of the High Court Anil Katti inaugurated the competition.
Mr. Indiresh urged students to focus on their personality development. Three things are very important in the legal profession and they are, integrity, hard work and reflective thinking. Students should strive at developing these traits, he added.
He said that there are several avenues available to them, apart from working as junior advocates or joining legal firms. They can choose professions, like in the judiciary, as drafting members in Parliament, as academics, or even as service-minded politicians, he added.
High Court advocate and Chairman of Karnataka Law Society P.S. Sawkar asked students not to worry about the increasing use of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT in the legal profession. He assured them that success can be achieved only through hard work.
Moot court coordinator Ashwini Parab announced the prizes. Moot court secretary Shruti Kolaki proposed a vote of thanks. Kushi Kathariya and Sarthak Hiremath were the anchors.
Teachers, staff and students participated.
Raja Lakhamagouda Law College principal A.H. Hawaldar, advocate and Karnataka Law Society secretary V.G. Kulkarni, advocate and member of Governing Council of Raja Lakhamagouda Law College R.S. Mutalik and others were present.
