2nd Dr. S.S. Tantia Moot Court Competition 2026 at Tantia University, Sri Ganganagar (Oct 24-25; Winning Team Rs 31,000)

Tantia University, Sri Ganganagar was established in 2013 under Act No. 32 of the Rajasthan State Legislative Assembly. It is a UGC-approved, NAAC-accredited private university founded by Dr. S.S. Tantia, spread over a 75-acre campus with more than 20 faculties, research centres, libraries and a moot court hall, and a 1,200-bedded Jan Sewa Hospital attached to it. The university's stated aim is affordable quality higher education, particularly for students of the border region and other underserved communities.

The Faculty of Law was established in 2015 and offers B.A.LL.B. (five-year integrated), LL.B. (three-year), LL.M. (two-year), a Post Graduate Diploma in Cyber Law and Ph.D. programmes. It runs a digital lecture theatre, a moot court hall, a legal aid clinic, a library and an e-library, and has hosted three National Seminars, an International Conference and the 1st Dr. S.S. Tantia National Moot Court Competition. Several of its alumni have been selected to the Rajasthan Judicial Services as Judicial Magistrates.

The 2nd Dr. S.S. Tantia Moot Court Competition is being held on 24 and 25 October 2026 at the Faculty of Law, Tantia University, Sri Ganganagar. It runs entirely in person under the tagline 'Argue. Persuade. Research. Compete. Excel.'

The inaugural edition in 2025 drew 26 teams representing nine states, and the Faculty is positioning this second edition on the back of that. SCC Online is the Knowledge Partner and SCC Online Times is the Media Partner. Dr. Saurabh Garg, Dean of the Faculty of Law, is the Convener; Dr. Navna Singh and Dr. Sandeep Kaur are Executive Conveners; Dr. Tarun and Ms. Anamika Khurana are Associate Conveners.

The proposition is set in the fictional Republic of Indiana, whose laws are pari materia with those of the Republic of India. In the State of Vindhya, the Asha Residency Welfare Association engaged Sentinel Secure Systems Pvt. Ltd. in January 2025 to install AI-based surveillance across a gated township of 17 towers and roughly 3,600 residents: over 480 visible CCTV cameras plus around 170 concealed micro-cameras with facial recognition, gait recognition, AI-assisted behavioural threat prediction and cloud-based recording. Residents received only a brief circular about 'CCTV cameras for enhanced security'; the hidden cameras were never disclosed and no resident signed a consent form.

On 14 April 2025 Mr. Rajat Khanna, a real estate developer heading a contested redevelopment project, was found stabbed to death in the basement parking of the society. The visible cameras had stopped recording for about eight minutes during a voltage fluctuation. Seventeen hours later Sentinel disclosed that two concealed AI-enabled micro-cameras had kept running on an independent battery backup, and supplied the police with an AI-generated investigation package: digitally enhanced and brightened footage, noise reduction, motion stabilisation and roughly fifty seconds of missing frames reconstructed by predictive interpolation. The AI identified Mr. Vikram Sethi as the assailant with 98.4 per cent confidence and matched his gait at 97.8 per cent probability.

The defence contended that the original recordings were never produced, that the raw storage devices were never seized, that AI processing happened before investigators ever saw the footage, that the proprietary algorithms were inaccessible even to the police, and that system logs showed the video file had been accessed twice before handover. The prosecution relied almost entirely on the automated report. The trial court convicted the accused of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Alongside the criminal appeal, 112 residents of Asha Residency moved the High Court alleging infringement of their right to privacy through hidden surveillance, AI-based profiling and misuse of personal data. Because both proceedings raised common questions, the High Court ordered them to be heard together before a division bench. The issues before the Court are:

• Whether AI-generated surveillance outputs, including facial recognition results, behavioural predictions and reconstructed video footage, are admissible as electronic evidence under the Indiana Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023.
• Whether failure to produce the original CCTV footage affects the authenticity and admissibility of the evidence.
• Whether the conviction of the accused for murder is sustainable on this record.
• Whether the installation and operation of AI-based surveillance systems, including concealed cameras, facial recognition and behavioural analysis technologies, by Sentinel Pvt. Ltd. and ARWA violate the fundamental right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.
• Whether the State has a constitutional obligation to regulate private AI surveillance technologies to ensure accountability, transparency, data protection and protection of citizens' fundamental rights.

Participants may frame any additional issue or issues if required. All facts, names, characters, places and events in the proposition are fictitious and created solely for academic and moot court purposes.

Each team consists of three members, recorded in the brochure's annexures as Mooter-1, Mooter-2 and a Researcher. The Approval Letter at Annexure I carries three participant rows and must be signed and sealed by the Head of Department of the participating institute, declaring that the participants are bonafide students of that institute and that the participation complies with the rules of the competition. It also asks for the name and address of the participating institute, a registered mobile number and an official e-mail ID.

The Travel and Accommodation Letter at Annexure II must record, for each of the two mooters and the researcher, their name, travel details (train or bus), date and time of arrival, date and time of departure from Tantia University, and whether accommodation is required. It too is signed and sealed by the Head of Department.

Registration is open from 14 August 2026 to 15 September 2026 through the university's Google Form, which is linked as 'Register Now' from the Tantia University homepage and from the Faculty of Law site. The last date for payment is 16 September 2026.

The registration fee is Rs 4,500 per team with accommodation and Rs 1,500 per team without accommodation. Payment is made by UPI to the ID printed on the brochure's Scan and Pay code, 9414093724m@pnb.

After submitting the Google Form, each participating team must e-mail the following to mootcourtfoltu@gmail.com: a screenshot of the submitted Google Form, a screenshot of the payment receipt, a scanned copy of the Approval Letter (Annexure I) and a scanned copy of the Travel and Accommodation Letter (Annexure II).

Clarifications on the moot proposition may be sought up to 20 September 2026, and the organisers will release clarifications on 25 September 2026. Team codes are allotted on 5 October 2026, and soft copies of memorials are due by 7 October 2026. The draw of lots is conducted online on 23 October 2026.

On 24 October 2026 the inaugural ceremony is followed by the preliminary rounds and then the quarter-final round, with a gala night the same evening. The semi-final and final rounds and the valedictory ceremony take place on 25 October 2026.

Every participant is awarded a certificate of participation and a token of appreciation acknowledging their contribution to the event. All participants also get one month of access to the SCC Online Web Edition.