ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
All students pursuing undergraduate (three or five-year courses) or postgraduate law degrees from any law school/university/college recognised by the Bar Council of India are eligible to participate in the Competition.
THEME
Financial Market Misconduct in the Era of Digital Lending: Detection Challenges and Regulatory Responses
Under this theme, the following sub-topics are suggested:-
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RegTech and SupTech: Can Technology Effectively Detect Misconduct in Digital Lending
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Enforcement Challenges Against Illegal Digital Lending Apps: A Cross-Border Legal Analysis
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Dark Patterns and Deceptive Design in FinTech Interfaces: A New Frontier of Market Misconduct
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The Proliferation of Unregulated Lending Apps (ULAs) : Regulatory Perimeter Challenges
PRIZES
The best entries would be awarded:
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First Prize: INR 30,000 /- and a merit certificate;
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Second Prize: INR 25,000/- and a merit certificate;
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Third Prize: INR 15,000/- and a merit certificate;
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The best three entries will receive a one-year complimentary subscription to SCC Online Web Edition.
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Certificates of special mention will be awarded to the fourth and fifth best entries.
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The winning entry will be considered for publication in the latest issue of Scholasticus, the Journal published by the Centre.
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The remaining five entries may be considered for publication on the Centre’s Blog.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
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The first page of the submission should only contain the title of the paper, followed by the 200-word abstract. The second page must contain a table of contents, and the main body of the manuscript should begin immediately thereafter.
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The word limit for the essay is 3,500 words. The word limit is exclusive of the footnotes.
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Disclosure of information regarding identity of the author(s), including, but not limited to name, institutional assistance, professional details, etc., within the body of the manuscript or other properties of the document submitted is strictly prohibited. Any violation of the anonymity requirement will lead to disqualification of the manuscript for the purposes of the competition.
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All the submissions must be original and unpublished work of the author(s).
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All the submissions will be checked for plagiarism and those with plagiarism percentage over the permissible limit (i.e., 10%) will be summarily rejected.
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The permissible limit for usage of Artificial Intelligence is 20%, beyond which the manuscripts will be summarily rejected.
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The participants are required to submit their manuscript by filling out this Google form.
CITATION GUIDELINES
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The authorities must be cited in the form of footnotes.
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Citations must follow a uniform format of citation throughout the submission.
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The participants are required to provide the name of the author, title of the article/report/blog, date of publication, and active web-link for the authorities cited wherever possible.
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In case of large documents such as reports, long articles, cases, etc. the authors must include the relevant paragraph/page of the authority being cited.
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Speaking/explanatory citations are discouraged.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
All the submissions will go through a blind review process, wherein at least two reviewers from the Centre’s organizing team will assess the submission based on the following criteria:
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Depth of research;
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Structure of the submission;
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Novelty, innovation, and application of mind in the analysis by the author(s); and
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Original suggestions provided by the author(s), if any.
As a general guideline, research regarding a restricted aspect, with detailed insights within the prescribed topics would be appreciated.
COMPETITION GUIDELINES
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A co-authorship of not more than two authors is permitted.
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By submitting the article, the author(s) forfeit copyright over their manuscript in favor of the organizers.
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In case of any dispute, the decision of the organizers will be final and binding. The Centre retains absolute discretion in marking the manuscript.
TIMELINE
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Deadline for submitting entries: May 30, 2026.
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Announcement of Results for the Competition: Third week of June, 2026
In case of any query, kindly reach out to us at centerforbanking@nlujodhpur.ac.in.
