The Moot Court Society of NLSIU, in association with Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co (SAM), presents the third edition of the NLS—SAM FinTech Moot Court Competition, 2026, scheduled on November 28—29, 2026.
This competition is dedicated to the evolving field of fintech law, at the intersection of finance and cutting-edge technology. This year’s moot problem is focused on the legal, constitutional, and regulatory challenges arising from the deployment of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems in financial services. The problem was selected to deliberate on real-world questions ranging from the constitutionality of a blanket prohibition on AI-driven credit underwriting and KYC verification, the fundamental rights of informal-income applicants systematically excluded by opaque algorithmic decisioning, and the application of copyright law to the training of machine learning models on proprietary datasets, so that participants engage with issues currently before policymakers, regulators, and courts at the intersection of emerging technology, financial inclusion, and intellectual property.
Eligibility
The Competition is open to all students enrolled bona fide on a regular basis in an undergraduate or postgraduate law course (including LL.M. programmes) or its equivalent conducted by any recognised institution, provided that only students in their 2nd year or above of the B.A. LL.B. (or any integrated 5-year law programme) and the 3-year LL.B. programme shall be eligible to participate. Further, a recognised institution shall be entitled to send only one team to the competition. Where a university has constituent colleges, each college may register a team, or the university may be represented by a team comprising students from different constituent colleges
Registration Details
Deadline for provisional registration: August 18, 2026; Deadline for final registration: August 24, 2026.
A non-refundable upfront registration fee of INR 2,500 will be charged. Teams which qualify for the offline oral rounds shall be required to pay an additional participation fee of INR 7,500. This fee is inclusive of accommodation, food, and travel to and from the venue to the accommodation provided
Please find the form for final registration, and the payment link for the registration fee.
Important Dates
-
August 22, 2026: Release of Moot Proposition to Registered Teams
-
August 24, 2026: Deadline for Final Registrations
-
August 29, 2026: Deadline to Submit Clarifications
-
September 3, 2026: Release of Clarifications
-
September 25, 2026: Submission of Memorials
-
October 24—25, 2026: Virtual Qualifier Rounds
-
November 28—29, 2026: Oral Rounds (Advanced Rounds)
Please refer to the Brochure & Rulebook for further details here.
Contact Information
For queries, please contact us at mootcourtsociety@nls.ac.in.
About National Law School of India University
The National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, established in 1987, is the first National Law University in India and continues to be recognised as a premier institution for legal education. It has consistently upheld a tradition of academic excellence, while also excelling in mooting and advocacy at both the national and international level. NLSIU is the only Indian institution to have won the Philip C. Jessup Moot twice and has also triumphed at the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot and reached the advanced stages of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in recent years.
About Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co (SAM), founded on a century of legal achievements, is one of India’s leading full-service law firms with the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification — the latest global benchmark for information security management systems. The Firm’s mission is to enable business by providing solutions as trusted advisers through excellence, responsiveness, innovation, and collaboration. SAM is known globally for its exceptional practices in mergers & acquisitions, private equity, competition law, insolvency & restructuring, dispute resolution, international commercial arbitration, capital markets, banking & finance, tax, intellectual property, data protection and data privacy, white collar crime, technology law and infrastructure, energy and project finance.
With the full suite of Harvey AI functionalities, the Firm has a pan-India presence and has been at the helm of major headline transactions and litigations in all sectors, besides advising major multinational corporations on their entry into the Indian market and their business strategy. Currently, the Firm has over 900 lawyers including 193 partners, offering legal services through its offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Gurugram, Ahmedabad, GIFT City (Gandhinagar), Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai.
