11th Justice Murtaza Husain Memorial Moot Court Competition 2026 at Unity P.G. College, Lucknow (Oct 23-25; Winning Team Rs 20,000; Register by Sep 30)

Unity P.G. College, Lucknow, associated to the University of Lucknow, announces the 11th Justice Murtaza Husain Memorial Moot Court Competition, 2026, to be held from 23 to 25 October 2026 at the college campus in Lucknow. The competition is organised by the Unity Moot Court Committee, the college’s student body for mooting, and is named after the college’s founder, Justice Murtaza Husain, a former Judge of the Allahabad High Court and Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh.

The 10th edition drew teams from Aligarh Muslim University, Amity University Lucknow, Lloyd Law College, KLE Society’s Law School, Christ University and the University of Lucknow, among others. Parul University, Vadodara won and KIIT School of Law, Bhubaneswar finished runners-up. The organisers expect sitting High Court judges and other members of the legal fraternity to attend this edition.

The problem, Marsal Ekka & Ors. v. State of Vanchal & Ors., concerns a 50-year lease of an old-growth forest in a Fifth Schedule Scheduled Area to a private mining company without the consent of the affected Gram Sabhas. The issues framed are:

• Whether the lease, granted without the prior consent of the Gram Sabhas, is invalid.
• Whether fixing the lease rental at Rs 1,200 per hectare per year without a competitive or transparent process is arbitrary State action and a breach of the public trust doctrine.
• Whether the lease and the resulting displacement violate the fundamental rights of the affected Adivasi communities, read with the Fifth Schedule protections.
• Whether forest clearance granted without a proper Environmental Impact Assessment or public hearing, relying on a 2019 reclassification of forest land as “revenue wasteland”, is lawful.
• Whether the absence of any rehabilitation and resettlement plan makes the lease unsustainable, and whether the State’s claim that no “acquisition” took place is tenable.

• Open to students pursuing a 3-year LL.B. or a 5-year integrated LL.B. programme at recognised institutions in India.
• Each team has two Speakers and one Researcher.
• Replacing a team member is allowed only in exceptional circumstances, with prior written approval of the Organising Committee.
• The official language of the competition is English.

• Without accommodation: Rs 3,500 per team.
• With accommodation: Rs 6,000 per team.
• The fee is non-refundable.
• Pay by online transfer to the college's account. Bank details are in the official brochure.

Teams that take accommodation are housed from 23 October (1:00 PM) to 26 October (10:00 AM). Breakfast and dinner are served at the accommodation and lunch on the college campus, and transport is arranged between the accommodation and the college.

Register by 11:59 PM on 30 September 2026. The brochure asks teams to fill in the Google registration form and then pay the fee. The rule book also requires the following to be emailed to unitymootcourtcommittee@gmail.com with the subject line “Registration for 11th Justice Murtaza Hussain Memorial Moot Court Competition, 2026”:

• the completed Registration Form and Travel Form;
• proof of the online fee transfer;
• accommodation requirements, if any.

Requests for clarification on the proposition go to the same email address, also by 30 September 2026 (11:59 PM).

• Each team files memorials for both the Petitioner and the Respondent.
• Soft copies (Word and PDF) must be emailed by 10 October 2026 (11:59 PM). Four hard copies per side are submitted at on-site registration on 23 October 2026.
• Late submission costs 5 marks per day.
• Format: Times New Roman, 12 pt body with 1.5 spacing, 10 pt footnotes with single spacing, 1-inch margins, Bluebook 21st edition citation, blue cover for the Petitioner and red for the Respondent, a limit of 35 pages including the cover.
• Memorials are marked out of 50 on knowledge of law and research, understanding of facts and issues, reasoning, use of authorities, and formatting and citation.
• Teams must use only their Team Code. Disclosing institutional identity leads to disqualification.

• Structure: two preliminary rounds, then quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final.
• Time per team: 30 minutes in the preliminaries and quarter-finals, 35 minutes in the semi-finals and 40 minutes in the final, with up to 5 minutes reserved for rebuttal or surrebuttal.
• Each speaker is marked out of 100 per judge on knowledge of facts, knowledge of law and authorities, argumentative skills, courtroom etiquette and time management.
• The Researcher’s Test is mandatory for every designated researcher: 20 MCQs of 2 marks each and 2 descriptive questions of 5 marks each, in 35 minutes.
• Scouting is prohibited and leads to immediate disqualification.

Men wear a white shirt, black trousers, black tie, black coat and black formal shoes. Women wear a white shirt with black trousers or skirt, or a white kurta with black salwar, with a black coat and black shoes. No institutional mark or logo may appear on attire or accessories.