The NUJS as I saw it

The NUJS as I saw it
The 'Pillar' of Justice

Friday, April 15, 2011

Tryst with Moots

Well, as days went past by and the semester was at its full swing, Atul’s affair with Mitali also accelerated in almost a geometrical progression. For him, academic grades were of least importance and so one might even guess how he would have graded the upcoming moot-court competition. The NUJS moot court competition is by far the most happening and exciting event that happens annually. Inter-batch and intra-batch contests are held for the NUJS moot team selection. Students forsake hours of merry making and curriculum studies, just to find a place in the prestigious team, thereby gaining the opportunity to represent the college in moots organized within and without the country. I was advised by my peers and seniors to take part in the same and try my luck. I didn’t understand the role of luck in moot courts. Come on, you just cannot rely on your luck to succeed in a competition that is based on pure oratory and research skills, I thought. Anyways, I decided to try ‘my luck’.

There are certain things in a law school that drives people into stardom overnight. One amongst such things is the author of moot problems. The problem-setter’s or the author’s name is usually mentioned as a footnote with the much hyped ‘©’ appearing along with it. I often wondered whether law school students, who are generally expert plagiarisers, could hardly produce such geniuses who could ‘create’ legal problems over which hundreds of students could debate upon. Nonetheless, as potential mooters, we were not supposed to raise such queries, as the implications could easily be conjectured.

We were given five days to prepare our ‘memorials’ and submit them to the ‘moot – court society’. The other thing that attracts major attention and distraction of students in a law school is the number of ‘societies’ that are formed, either by ambitious and opportunistic students, or by various departments in the college. Elaborate plans are formulated at the inception of these societies, only to be jettisoned into the unknown, once they serve the purpose of ornamenting the CVs of its members. However, every general norm has an exception – the moot court society, being one of them.

Five days was, in any case, too less of time to complete an independently researched memorial. Thus, I decided to do what all other potential mooters had already campaigned for – working ‘in groups’, which basically implied, copying, though with minor changes in the language and frills, a standard memorial written by a stud mooter, who was to be given an extravagant dinner by all of us later. The deal sounded good to me. So, the task that was to be completed in five days, got done away within a couple of hours. Next came the task of mugging the memorial and the case laws which substantiated the arguments put forth therein. Now, mugging was an exercise which children undertook to rote poems at schools, I had thought. Law was a subject to be comprehended from law books and analysed and debated at courts of law. However, this business of mooting revealed yet another aspect of legal studies. ‘One should be ‘thorough’ with the memorials, ‘thorough’ enough to refer and cross refer any point of law discussed in it while arguing one’s case in front of the judges’, I was told by one of my seniors who had the tag of being the champion in an international moot court competition.

Later in my tenure at law school, I realized that mugging and roting were infact the keys to high grades in exams. Most teachers did allow ‘bare acts’ and law texts during exams, no doubt, but it never served any purpose, as hunting for the applicable provision in a legislation of about a hundred sections, is quite an impossible task in the limited span of two hours. In any event, the case laws and quotes from landmark judgments, which are critical in impressing the examiners, could only be expectorated in the answer scripts by mugging them an hour before the exams. I wonder if this mechanism of examination at laws schools ever helps in churning good lawyers out of students who merely get trained in developing a short lived retention capacity.

So, as regards my mooting experience, I decided to ‘mug’ the memorial, which in itself was a twenty-page document with each paragraph making references to a dozen of case laws. One can imagine the pain I had to undergo in this process. For few, with high retention capacities, this was a challenge they welcomed all throughout. But in my case, had I stopped cursing myself for having undertaken the task and attempted to seriously memorise the memorial, I guess, I would have had the chance to prove myself a lesser clown.

Finally, the judgment day arrived. The court sessions were scheduled to begin at 8.30 in the morning. The very thought of getting up early, taking a shower and adorning the black suit, sickened me. With the resources I had earned in one year at college, I managed to borrow a black blazer and a black trouser, though of a different shade. I was anyways prepared to be assaulted by the judges. As if my attire mattered much. The night before my appearance in the court, I managed to read through the memorial once. That was the only occasion for me to read through the irrelevant arguments that were written in it. It was a decent indication of the wrath and hard times I had to face the next day at court. Finally, I realized my contribution to buy dinner for the original author of the memorial was an utter waste. Hopeless and cursing myself for one last time, I went off to the land of the nod and waited for the next morning.

It was nothing unusual for me at the court room the day next. The judges slaughtered me not just on points of law and the crap that was written in the submissions, but also on my general demeanor and mannerisms in the courtroom. As I had well expected this to happen, it didn’t come as a surprise. I just wondered what music the others would be facing as they too had identical memorials and similar lines of arguments to place forth in front of these self imposed judges. It is a matter of chance, I thought, for a person to be allotted a court room with familiar and friendly judges. As was always the case, I was granted the toughest court with the rudest and most arrogant seniors judging me. The only consolation was a tender smile and a word from Atul the moment I came out of the room.

‘Who are these idiots to judge you? Two years previously, they were the same as we are today. Their knowledge in law and standing in the college is based on the two years of lectures they’ve been hearing in class rooms. Let them appear in the actual law courts and face the wraths of the judges there.’

The results of the moots weren’t surprising either. I was one of the lowest in the rank list that was published by the moot court society, a clear indication that I had to give a shot at other extra – curriculars to make a name for myself. Mooting was simply not my cup of tea. There are occasions when failures do not bother you. There are times when you become an Atul. This was that occasion for me. My low grades in the moot simply reflected my inability to impress my seniors who considered themselves to be demigods while being addressed as ‘your lordships’. However, what actually surprised me was that the others who had participated in copying the same memorial had done much better than me. Infact, one amongst them even secured the highest marks. But then, as I said, it didn’t matter to me at the end of the day. Finally, I had become an Atul in one aspect of life at least.

2 comments:

  1. Dada, kichu to korte hobe!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really like this part:

    The other thing that attracts major attention and distraction of students in a law school is the number of ‘societies’ that are formed, either by ambitious and opportunistic students, or by various departments in the college. Elaborate plans are formulated at the inception of these societies, only to be jettisoned into the unknown, once they serve the purpose of ornamenting the CVs of its members.

    ReplyDelete