Patna: The teams of Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University (DSNLU), Vishakhapatnam, walked away with top prizes at the 13th Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) national parliamentary debate held here on Sunday. The final round debate saw lively yet ferocious arguments in favour of their motion by the competing students on the third and final day of the event.
The grand finale was held between the teams of DSNLU over the motion “This house, as the Dalit movement regrets the Margazhiyil Makkal Isai music festival being performed at the Music Academy.” Both finalist teams argued fiercely over this relevant question of caste-based discrimination within classical arts and music as well as reclaiming spaces historically reserved for the historically advantaged castes.
A seven-judge panel of the best adjudicators who participated in the tournament evaluated and gave the verdict, which was announced at the valedictory ceremony.
The valedictory ceremony was held in the evening and was graced by Justice (retd) Navin Sinha of the Supreme Court as the chief guest, and Justice Anshuman of the Patna High Court as guest of honour. The vice chancellor of CNLU Justice (retd) Mridula Mishra of the Patna High Court addressed the gathering with her usual charm and motivating spirit.
Justice Navin Sinha thanked the VC and reminisced over their long-standing relationship as friends and colleagues. He turned to the participants and congratulated them. He further shared with the students the intersection of good parliamentary debating skills that help inculcate important qualities required in a good litigator. Justice Sinha also shed light on the importance of social and economic awareness as well as good communication skills in the courtroom.
The guest of honour, Justice Anshuman also shared words of wisdom and encouragement with the audience and urged all law students present in the audience to take up litigation practice, as according to him, justice is impossible without a good lawyer.
Team 1 from DSNLU comprising of Angela Elsa John, Anjali Gurumoorthy and KK Prahalad walked away with the grand prize of ₹54,000 while team 2, again from DSNLU, comprising of Elsa Sibu, Eshitha Milinda and Arthi Gaddipati, also from DSNLU was the runners up who bagged the prize of ₹30,000.
Elsa Sibu from DSNLU was declared as the best speaker, an exceptionally special award named after the senior advocate of Patna HC, late Shailesh Chandra Mishra. The best adjudicator was Adhipathya Singh from RMLNLU, Lucknow. The tournament also had a separate novice category in order to ensure maximum inclusivity and keep the competition fair for amateur debaters. Team comprising of Ankita Kumari, Swati Kumari and Harsha Kumari from CNLU won the finals in the novice category.
Out of the four teams that qualified for the open semis, two were from Dharmshastra National Law University (DNLU), Jabalpur, one from Central University South Bihar (CUSB), Gaya, and one an in-house team from CNLU, Patna, itself. Motions were on the theme of social movements like feminism, creating new age legends for post conflict societies and pondering upon the probable origins of organized religions.
