14th UFYLC-Ranka National Moot Court Competition 2026

The Ranka National Moot Court Competition, hosted by University Five Year Law College (UFYLC), University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, returns for its 14th edition from 3rd to 5th October 2026. The competition is organised in collaboration with the Ranka Public Charitable Trust and is open to students enrolled in the five year integrated law programme and the three year LL.B. programme across India.

• To give students pursuing the law course exposure to the environment of the court system in India and to hone their advocacy skills.
• To provide real-life experience cum training in cutting edge research, presenting ground breaking arguments and contributing to the development of jurisprudence in the concerned areas of law.

Participants argue simulated cases before eminent judges and legal practitioners. Past editions have been graced by sitting and former judges of the Supreme Court of India and the Rajasthan High Court.

University Five Year Law College, Jaipur is a constituent college of the University of Rajasthan and a leading institution for legal education. Founded in the year 2008, it is a self-financing endeavour approved by the Bar Council of India. The University of Rajasthan, established as Rajputana University on 8 January 1947, holds an A+ grade accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council.

The Ranka Public Charitable Trust was established in 1980 by Late Dr. N. M. Ranka, Senior Advocate from Jaipur. For over 35 years the Trust has worked in public welfare, legal education, Gandhian philosophy and philanthropy, and it organises a range of law-based activities including moot court competitions and trial advocacy competitions in collaboration with universities across the country.

The competition will be held physically from 3rd to 5th October 2026 at University Five Year Law College, University of Rajasthan Campus, JLN Marg, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302004.

• Inauguration Ceremony: 3rd October 2026
• Oral Rounds: 3rd and 4th October 2026
• Researcher's Test: 5th October 2026
• Valedictory Ceremony: 5th October 2026

• The competition is open to bona fide students pursuing Five Year Integrated and Three Year LL.B. courses.
• Each team shall comprise three members. Under no condition shall a team of more or less than three members be allowed to participate. The Competition Organisation Committee may, in exceptional circumstances and after hearing the members on merits, allow a team of at least two members, and its decision in this regard shall be final.
• Each team must designate two members as speakers and one member, who is not a speaker, as researcher. Speakers and the researcher must be identified at the time of registration itself, and only participants registered as oralists shall be allowed to speak.
• No extra member or observer shall be allowed, and no swapping of designation of members is permitted.
• Not more than one team shall be allowed to register and participate from the same College, Institution or University.
• Once registered, team composition cannot be varied except with the express permission of the Competition Organisation Committee on due reason shown.
• Arguments shall be in English only.

Registration is open to one team per institute and teams will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis. The Organising Committee reserves the right to close registrations prior to the deadline upon reaching maximum capacity. Interested teams must register by filling out the official Google registration form on or before 31st August 2026 (11:59 P.M. IST).

• Registration fee: INR 7,000 per team, inclusive of accommodation, payable before 31st August 2026.
• While filling the form, teams must nominate one primary contact person. All communication regarding the competition will be sent by e-mail to that person, who is responsible for conveying the information to the team.
• The fee is to be paid to the bank account or UPI/QR code given in the brochure. A screenshot of the payment receipt must be taken and attached in the Google form for verification.
• Teams shall clearly mention the participants' names, contact numbers and year or semester of study.

Payment details as stated in the official rules: Account Holder Name: Director, University Five Year Law College, UOR, Jaipur. Account No.: 20270110000281. IFSC Code: UCBA0002027. Bank Address: UCO Bank, Rajasthan University Campus, Jaipur.

After registration, teams will receive a confirmation mail from the Organising Committee confirming their slot, along with a unique team code that must be used on the memorial and by which the team will be addressed in the oral rounds. No change in participants' names is permitted after receipt of the registration form, except at the sole discretion of the organisers.

The moot proposition is set in the High Court of Vayuvana at Nirmalpur. A writ petition in Azad Digital Foundation and Others v. State of Vayuvana and Others is clubbed with a criminal miscellaneous petition under Section 528 of the Indica Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 in Kabir Ahluwalia v. State of Vayuvana and Others.

• The writ petition challenges an emergency communication issued by the Department of Digital Safety, the blocking of all episodes of a satirical show, a direction to disable all substantially similar content, a requirement that platforms deploy automated tools to prevent re-upload, the threatened loss of intermediary safe harbour, and the chilling effect of criminal prosecution on digital creators, comedians and political commentators.
• The petitioners rely on Articles 14, 19(1)(a), 19(1)(g) and 21, arguing that the State action was vague, overbroad, disproportionate, procedurally unfair and arbitrary, and that constitutional courts must distinguish between illegality, vulgarity, bad taste, satire, adult humour, political dissent and synthetically manipulated outrage.
• The State contends that AI-manipulated content can cause irreversible harm within minutes and that intermediaries must be required to act swiftly where synthetic media, obscenity, disability-based humiliation and public disorder intersect.
• The criminal limb raises questions of arrest, seizure of devices, police custody, compelled self-incrimination and the scope of an investigation extending to unpublished scripts and creative material.

The brochure carries the full proposition together with notes and clarifications for participants, a suggested list of applicable laws and a suggested list of precedents.

• All teams must submit both soft copies and hard copies of the memorials for both sides. Participants may frame additional issues other than those in the moot proposition, if desired.
• Soft copies must be sent on or before 23:59 IST on 20th September 2026 to mootufylc@gmail.com with the subject line Submission of Memorial by (Team code), in both PDF and Word format.
• Hard copies, six copies from each side, must reach University Five Year Law College, University of Rajasthan, JLN Marg, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302004 on or before 24th September 2026. No memorials shall be accepted after the prescribed date.
• The parcel of hard copies shall contain a slip mentioning the name of the college, participants and mobile numbers. Any identification mark on the memorial itself attracts a severe penalty.
• Cover page colour scheme: Blue for Appellant or Petitioner, Red for Respondent. The team code must appear on the top right-hand corner of the cover page; memorials without the team code will not be evaluated. The cover page must also carry the name and place of the forum, the names of the parties and their status, and the party on whose behalf the memorial is filed.
• Each memorial shall carry, in order: Cover Page, Table of Contents, List of Abbreviations, Index of Authorities, Statement of Jurisdiction, Statement of Facts, Issues Raised, Summary of Arguments, Arguments Advanced and Prayer.
• Formatting: language English; body in Times New Roman 12 pts with 1.5 line spacing; footnotes in Times New Roman 10 pts with single line spacing.
• Use of AI tools is prohibited. Memorials must be original with plagiarism not exceeding 20 per cent. Violation will lead to disqualification.
• No amendment to the memorial is permitted after submission, and teams may not raise arguments in the oral rounds that are not present in the memorial.

The competition consists of two preliminary rounds, quarter finals, semi-finals and a final round.

• In the two preliminary rounds each team argues from both sides. Pairings are drawn by lots and no two teams argue against each other more than once in the preliminary rounds. Each team receives the opposing team's memorial after the draw of lots.
• The top eight teams advance to the quarter finals on the basis of total wins and total scores after both preliminary rounds. Ties are broken by wins, aggregate absolute speaker scores and then memorial scores.
• The quarter finals, semi-finals and final are knock-out rounds. Four teams reach the semi-finals and two reach the final. Ties in the quarter finals and semi-finals are broken by the aggregate total of memorial marks.
• No single speaker may address the court for more than twenty-five minutes. Teams must notify the Court Officer of the time reserved for rebuttal or sur-rebuttal at the start of each session.
• Speakers may not pass annexures to the judges; a compendium of annexures may be handed to the bench before proceedings. No pictorial material may be submitted during oral submissions, and violation leads to disqualification.
• Speakers must not reveal their own identity or that of their university or college in any manner.
• Each speaker is marked out of 100 by each bench judge across ten criteria of ten marks each: appreciation and application of facts, identification and articulation of issues, application of legal principles, use of authorities and precedents, response to questions, presentation skills, clarity of thought and logical structure of arguments, poise and demeanour, strategy and ingenuity.

• A researcher's test will be conducted on 5th October 2026 to adjudge the Best Researcher award. It is an objective test of one hour based on the applicable law, precedents and facts of the moot proposition, written only by the designated researcher. Participation is mandatory for all teams and failure to participate may result in disqualification. No material other than stationery may be carried.
• Teams may present compendiums during oral rounds at the discretion of the bench. Compendiums must maintain anonymity and carry only the team code.
• Written clarifications on the moot problem may be sought between 1st and 10th September 2026, only by email to mootufylc@gmail.com with the subject Clarification Request - Team Code. No team names or college names are to be mentioned. Clarifications will be released on 15th September 2026.
• The organisers will provide boarding and lodging from 3rd to 5th October 2026. Any misconduct at the venue or the place of accommodation will result in disqualification of the team from the accommodation.
• Dress code inside the court room: females, white salwar kurta and dupatta or white shirt and black trousers with black coat and tie; males, white shirt, black trousers, black tie with black coat and black shoes. Western formals for gentlemen and western or Indian formals for ladies at all functions of the competition.
• No team member or anyone connected with a team may sit in or hear arguments in a court room in which that team is not contesting while it is competing. Violation may lead to disqualification.