Mohali institute selected for int’l moot court competition

Tribune News Service

Mohali, February 10

Justice Surya Kant of the Punjab and Haryana High Court inaugurated the AIL–Sarin National Rounds of the 9th Leiden-Sarin International Air Law Moot Court Competition at the Army Institute of Law, here today.

In his address, Justice Surya Kant appreciated the efforts of the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation and Leiden University in organising the moot court competition. He added that such platform helped students to have a profound understanding of law.

He said the legal profession was one of the most honourable professions and participation in the moot court competition would help students become better advocates. “My advice to students would be to avoid repetition, cull out cold facts and then arrange them in a logical manner,” he said.

As many as 18 teams from the top law schools of the country participated in the national finals. It was judged by 30 judges, including Justice AG Masih, Justice RN Raina, Justice GS Sandhawalia, Justice BS Walia, Justice Amit Rawal, Justice Deepak Sibal and Justice Sudhir Mittal.

Former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Justice SS Sodhi (retd), who is also the president of the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation, said this moot court competition was one of its kinds in the world, and was a result of collaboration between the Sarin Foundation and Leiden University, Netherlands. “Mooting is one of the most important components of training for a law student,” he added.

The three teams selected in the India round are National Law University, Jodhpur; Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala, and Army Institute of Law, Mohali.

The selected teams would compete in Seoul with teams from 20 countries, including US, China, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Poland, Singapore, Greece and France.

Nitin Sarin, the moot coordinator, stated that this field of law was pertinent in the Indian context because of the booming aviation market which is slated to be the largest in the world by 2030.

Nitin Sarin informed that the first eight editions of this international competition were held round the world, beginning with New Delhi in 2010, Dubai 2011, Istanbul 2012, Abu Dhabi in 2013, Bucharest Romania in 2014; Beijing, China in 2015; Jakarta, Indonesia in 2016; and Malta in April 2017.

Two students of the Army Institute of Law received the first Sarin Foundation Best Mooters Award during the inauguration of the 9th Leiden Sarin International Air Law Moot Court Competition.

Justice Surya Kant gave away the awards comprising of Rs 25,000 each to Aafreen Choudhary and Adhiraj Bhandari.

ML Sarin, secretary general of the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation, announced the formation of a corpus of Rs 5 lakh, the interest of which will be used to felicitate the best mooter from the Army Institute of Law, Mohali, annually.

Will compete with teams from 20 countries 

The three teams selected in the India round are National Law University, Jodhpur; Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala, and Army Institute of Law, Mohali. The selected teams would compete in Seoul with teams from 20 countries, including US, China, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Poland, Singapore, Greece and France.

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