NLIU-Legal Aid Clinic | Public Interest Litigating Drafting Competition

Reported by Vivek Badkur

About the Legal Aid Clinic

The NLIU – Legal Aid Clinic (“LAC”), which is driven by the ethos of Article 39A of the Indian Constitution, has been established under the aegis of the National Legal Services Authority. It is a student-run initiative, which aims to provide free legal aid to the marginalized sections of the society. Our aim is to provide pro bono legal representation and advice to the weak and downtrodden sections of the society. Additionally, we also organize various legal literacy workshops and training programs to spread legal awareness and to further the cause of legal literacy. All this has been made possible by the constant support of our collaborators, viz.:

  1. Madhya Pradesh State Legal Services Authority,
  2. District State Legal Services Authority, Bhopal
  3. Indian National Bar Association,
  4. International Council of Jurists,
  5. Committee for Legal Aid to Poor,
  6. SCC Online,
  7. EBC,
  8. LiveLaw,
  9. Red FM Bhopal, and
  10. Everyday India.

About the Constitution Day: PIL Drafting Competition

The NLIU LAC is organising the PIL Drafting Competition on Constitution Day. The rules of the competition are:

  1. Eligibility
  • The Competition shall be open for the students currently pursuing their Bachelor’s Degree in law i.e. 3-Year LL.B. course or 5-Year LL.B. course from any recognized university/college in India.
  • There is no restriction on the number of entries from any college or university.

2. Team Composition

  • “Individual Participation” as well as  “Participation in a team of two” is allowed.
  • Participants from two different universities may also form a team.
  • The substitution of any Team Member is not allowed after the registration deadline except in extenuating circumstances and only with permission of the Organizer.

3. Registration Process

  • The participating teams can register themselves by filling this Registration Form: HERE
  • The participation fee is Rs 100/- for one team.
  • The participants have to pay the registration fee in the manner hereinafter provided.

–        The payment screenshot must be attached within the registration form.

–        After the successful registration, each participant or team shall be allotted a unique team code for further references.

4. Payment Details

  • Subsequent to filling the registration form, payment of Rs 100 as registration fee has to be made to “+91-9920627181” with any UPI App (Paytm/ Google pay etc.)
  • If you are facing any problem in making the payment, kindly email us at “legalaidclinic@nliu.ac.in” so that we could suggest some other methods for your convenience.

5. List of Dates

S. No. Event Date
1. Registration Opens 9th November
2. Registration Closes 18th November
3. Submission of PIL drafts 21st November
4. Declaration of results 26th November

6. Queries

  • All the queries and clarifications must be sent to the official mail ID of the organizers i.e. “legalaidclinic@nliu.ac.in” and the subject of the mail must read as “PIL COMPETITION QUERY”.
  • No query without the subject “PIL COMPETITION QUERY” would be entertained.
  • The last day to raise a query is “19thNovember, 2020”
  • Only queries sent through a mail shall be entertained.
  1. Submission Guidelines

(i)     Topic of PIL

  • The participants may submit a PIL draft on any issue of contemporary relevance that they deem fit.

(ii)   Submission of PIL Drafts

  • Each Participating Team must submit ONE PIL draft.
  • If a participant/team wishes to submit any annexures to support his/her arguments contained in the Draft [for instance Reports, Commentaries, News Clippings, Pictures, etc.] a compendium of all the relevant annexures must be prepared and should be sent along with the memorial.
  • All PIL drafts must be sent on the email address: legalaidclinic@nliu.ac.intill 21st November, 2020 midnight with the Subject of the email as “PIL Draft, Team Code _”
  •  Any submission made after the deadline will not be considered for evaluation, and will result in the cancellation of candidature as well as forfeiture of the registration fee.
  • Any submission with any name reference of the participant will be disqualified.
  • Substantial Plagiarism shall amount to disqualification; therefore, the Participants must not submit plagiarised content (as the Drafts will be put through ‘Turnitin’). In case the draft of two or more participants/teams is found “substantially similar” to each other, both the participants/ teams shall be disqualified.

(iii) Formatting Guidelines

  • All the drafts must be submitted in both Microsoft Word Document format (.doc/.docx) and PDF Format (.pdf)[i.e. each participant is required to send 2 files- One in MS Word format and one in PDF format].
  • The body of the submissions must be in the font “Times New Roman” with font size 12, with line spacing of 1.5 and justified. (The Font size for the Headings can be formatted as per the choice of the participants)
  • The Footnotes shall be in Times New Roman, size 10, single line spacing, justified. Authorities shall be cited as per the 20thedition of the Bluebook.

(iv)  Content of the PIL

  • The PIL is to be filed before the Supreme Court of India
  • The PIL Memorial must contain all of, and only, the following components:

–        Cover page; which should contain;

(a)    The Unique team code in the upper right-hand corner.

(b)    The name of the case;

  • Table of Contents;
  • Table of Abbreviations;
  • Index of Authorities;
  • Statement of Jurisdiction;
  • Facts of the Case;
  • Issue(s) Raised;
  • Summary of Arguments/Pleadings;
  • Arguments Advanced/Pleadings;
  • Prayer;
  • Table of annexures.
  • There is no restriction on the number of pages.
  1. Marks Distribution
Standard of evaluation Marks
Knowledge of Law and Facts of the Proposition 20
Proper and Articulate Analysis 20
Extent and Use of Research 20
Clarity and Organization 20
Grammar and Style of Writing 10
Correct format and Citation style 10
TOTAL 100

Prizes

–  Cash prizes worth rupees 30,000

– internships will be awarded.

For Guidelines refer Guildelines- PIL drafting competition

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