3rd Arun Jaitley Memorial National Moot Court Competition 2026 at ITM University, Gwalior (Oct 30-Nov 1; Winner Rs 71,000; Register by Oct 5)

The School of Law, ITM University, Gwalior will hold the 3rd Arun Jaitley Memorial National Moot Court Competition (AJMCC) from 30 October to 1 November 2026 at its Sithouli campus in Gwalior. The competition is the School's flagship national moot and is named after the late Shri Arun Jaitley, lawyer, parliamentarian and statesman. SCC Online is the Exclusive Knowledge Partner and SCC Times the Exclusive Media Partner.

ITM University, Gwalior was established by an Act of the Madhya Pradesh State Legislature and is sponsored by the Samta Lok Sansthan trust. The organisers report that the 2nd edition drew 36 registrations from across India, including NLUs, central universities and government and private institutions, with benches of advocates, academics and High Court judges.

The problem is set before the Supreme Court of India in cross appeals arising from a Delhi High Court judgment on the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2020, the freezing of a human rights organisation's bank accounts and a money-laundering investigation. The issues include:

• Whether receiving foreign contribution is part of the right to form associations under Article 19(1)(c), or a statutory privilege subject only to Article 14 review.
• Whether amended Sections 7, 8, 12A and 17 of the FCRA are reasonable restrictions under Articles 19(4) and 19(6).
• Whether suspension of registration under Section 14 without a pre-decisional hearing, and the account freeze under Section 102 CrPC read with the PMLA, meet the Article 21 standard.
• Whether a claim of mala fide reprisal for the exercise of free speech is justiciable, and on what burden of proof.
• Whether routing funds as Foreign Direct Investment can be a scheduled offence sustaining a PMLA investigation.
• Whether international standards such as Article 22 of the ICCPR and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders aid interpretation of Articles 14, 19 and 21.

• Open to students enrolled in a full-time 5-year LL.B. or 3-year LL.B. programme at a university, college or institution approved by the Bar Council of India.
• Each team has three members: two speakers and one researcher.
• Registrations are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Where more than one team registers from the same college or university, the Moot Court Society decides at its discretion.
• Changes to team details after registration must be communicated to the organising committee by email. Changes during the competition are not accepted.

The participation fee is Rs 4,000 per team, without accommodation. Payment is made through the online registration form, and teams are asked to join the competition WhatsApp group after completing payment.

Participants arrange their own accommodation. The brochure lists nearby hotels for convenience (Hotel Radisson, Hotel Landmark, Hotel Sita Manor, Hotel Down Town and Satkar Guest House) and names Dhruvika Rathore (in-house, +91 8949230408) and Suraj Sharma (+91 8889004228) as the accommodation contacts.

Fill in the registration form on the ITM University events portal and pay the fee by 5 October 2026. Queries on registration go to Swet Yadav (+91 6265890818). Queries on the moot problem must be raised by 6 October 2026, and clarifications will be released on 7 October 2026.

• Each team prepares memorials for both sides, in English only.
• Soft copies of both memorials, in Word and PDF, must be emailed to mootcourt@itmuniversity.ac.in by 23 October 2026.
• File names carry only the team code and side (P/A for the Petitioner/Appellant, R for the Respondent).
• Four hard copies of each memorial are submitted at the registration desk on Day 1. Teams also bring two spiral-bound compendium copies.
• Format: 14 pt headings, 12 pt main text, 10 pt footnotes, 1.5 line spacing, 1-inch margins, justified text, a maximum of 30 pages including the cover, page numbers bottom centre, Bluebook 21st edition citation.
• Blue cover for the Petitioner/Appellant and red for the Respondent, on A4 sheets. Plagiarism is capped at 20%. Names of participants or institutions may not appear in memorials or oral arguments.
• Memorials are marked out of 100 on knowledge of law and fact, analysis, extent of research, organisation, originality, and grammar and style.

• Pairings are drawn and memorials exchanged online on 29 October 2026.
• Preliminary rounds: each team argues both sides, 20 minutes per team plus 5 minutes of rebuttal, with a maximum of 12 minutes per speaker.
• The eight highest-scoring teams go to the knock-out quarter-finals (30 minutes plus 5 minutes of rebuttal). Semi-finals and the final allow 35 minutes plus 5 minutes of rebuttal.
• Ties are broken on memorial scores. Oral rounds are marked out of 100 per speaker.
• The Researcher's Test is held on 30 October 2026, is open only to the registered researcher and decides Best Researcher alone. It does not count towards the team score.

Every participant receives a Certificate of Participation and one month's access to the SCC Online Web Edition, stated by the organisers to be worth Rs 1,099 per participant.