Moot Court Society For Department Of Law Formally Inaugurated

Moot Court Society for Department of Law, CHRIST, (Deemed to be University), Lavasa was formally inaugurated on 23^rd September 2019. The inaugural ceremony took place in the Auditorium, Central Block. It was a proud moment for School of Law as the day is important in everyone’s life and it will define their career path and help them navigate successfully to reach their destination. The Chief Guest on this occasion was Adv. Vismay Shroff and the Guest of Honour was Adv. Gokul Narayan.

After invoking the divine blessings, the ceremony began with the traditional lighting of the lamp by Director & Dean Dr (Fr) Jossy P George, Chief Guest; Adv. Vismay Shroff and Adv. Gokul Narayan, HOD, Dr Daisy Alexander, Adv. Kevin Turrao and Adv. Saimy Eliza Abraham while `Showers of Blessings’ played in the background during the lighting of lamp ceremony.

The Chief Guest, Adv. Vismay Shroff, Associate of Parimal K. Shroff & Co. Advocates, Solicitors and Notary, Mumbai, is the present India National Administrator for Phillips C. Jessups International Moot Court Competition which is held at Chicago every year. He is also presently representing ILSA i.e. International Law Students' Association. Adv. Vismay Shroff is an avid mooter, great orator and has par excellence skills in public speaking and legal writing. He is also a visiting professor at the Government Law College (GLC), Mumbai. He completed his LL.B. from GLC and LL.M. from Duke's University, USA and did short courses from Tufts University at the Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy and Georgetown University for ADR and International Law.

The Guest of Honour was Adv. Gokul Narayan, who is currently the Chief Operations Officer of Asian School of Cyber Laws, Pune. Adv. Gokul has completed his LL.B. and LL.M. from Symbiosis Law School Pune. As a good mooter and an orator he has specialized in Information Technology and Intellectual Property Laws and gives guest lectures on Intellectual Property Laws. Adv. Gokul also seeks SLCU collaboration with Asian School of Cyber Laws.

It was followed by the introduction of Director & Dean Dr (Fr) Jossy P George. Fr Jossy addressed the august gathering and congratulated the Moot Court Society while he expressed his appreciation of their untiring efforts for a successful execution of the program. He expressed his happiness for being a part of vibrant and energetic students. He drew an analogy with sports wherein one practices continuously to get perfection and inspired the students to understand the main motive behind a moot court. He further elucidated his speech and mentioned that fluency and enunciation is an important tool for speaking eloquently.

Fr Jossy reiterated that a lawyer must master the art of persuasion while presenting a case. He inspired the students to carry forward the legacy in years to come and take their department to a different level through sheer perseverance. Fr Jossy gave justifiable statistics about the number of law colleges in the country and motivated the students to be skilled and adept at presenting a case. He finally urged them to change their mindset and think differently and dare to be different. He ended his speech on a promising note that there might be a slight change in the curriculum and every effort will be made to make the atmosphere as conducive to learning as possible. His words of appreciation were indeed motivating and instilled confidence in the hearts of the students and faculty alike.

HOD, Dr Daisy Alexander was elated to be a part of enthusiastic students and shared her experience with Fr Jossy and had no iota of doubt before joining the college as HOD, School of Law. She inspired the students and said that they are the cultivators of the country’s economy who have assembled under one roof as a homogeneous community. She instilled in them faith that if they can then they will leave a mark in the years to come.

Then the Guest of Honor, Adv. Gokul Narayan addressed the audience with insightful observation and words of wisdom. His candid speech was straight from heart and narrated numerous personal anecdotes. He began with his early days when the concept of legal fraternity was new to him. He described the incident which turned out to be a life changer. Adv. Gokul persuasively said that a lawyer must have the ability to sway opinion and be convincing.

He rightly asserted that in order to achieve one ought to have thorough preparation, ability to express humbly without challenging the opponent apart from being decisive and forceful in presenting an argument. He further asserted that an in-depth understanding of the subject and ability to convince others are a must. A good lawyer ought to be observant and align with opponents. He advised them to be discreet in withholding fear of being judged and practice a lot to be more impactful in speech. 

Adv. Gokul was forthright in guiding the young law aspirants to be expressive, read voraciously and polish his / her communication skills. According to him they must also have the ability to tackle differences with dignity. He concluded his speech by encouraging them to work in tandem with each other as a group, embrace confusion, learn from faculty members and eventually become good practitioners.

Adv. Vismay Shroff congratulated the Moot Court Society of CHRIST, Lavasa and congratulated the future professionals in Law. His words were highly encouraging and the students listened to him in rapt attention. spoke eloquently and instantly connected with the audience and his speech was highly interactive. He also narrated personal anecdotes and went down the memory lane to recount his journey as a lawyer. He further elaborated the role of a law school in guiding students about the importance of spoken and written words. He reiterated the relevance of a moot court and asked pertinent questions about public speaking. 

Adv. Vismay inspired them to read a lot and be observant and they should do a lot of moot courts to be proficient in their work. He rightly pointed that a lawyer does not argue a brief, rather he or she pleads the proposition. In doing so a lawyer must remember that quality should be the mantra, they should aim for brevity and be sincere and truthful. Adv. Vismay spoke persuasively and asserted that the virtue of a good orator is honesty and wished them success in the future. He hoped that they will eventually emerge successful with clarity and ability to present a case convincingly, that comes with experience. He finally encouraged them to be true to themselves and their case and aptly concluded by saying that practicing in a moot court is neither easy but not hard either!

At the end Moot Court Society for Department of Law expressed its gratitude to the esteemed guests and felicitated them. A vote of thanks was given to acknowledge the unflinching efforts of teachers and student volunteers who diligently carried out their responsibilities with aplomb. The presence of dignitaries, students, faculty members and guests made it all the more special. The program as anchored by Reonia Mathew and Chhavi Pathak and it ended with CHRIST Anthem.