The English Debating Society has organized and undertaken a plethora of activities so far, in this academic year of 2012 – 2013. Over a 100 students have actively been involved in debate sessions, debate competitions, Model United Nations etc.
The introductory session for the Debating Society was held on the 12th of July 2012. An address was given to the students present by the Faculty Co-ordinator Dr. NitishNawsagaray and the President of the Debate Society Geetanjali Joshi. A general overview of what activites had been planned for the year was discussed with the students and the various members of the core committee were introduced to them.
Following the introductory session, an orientation session for Parliamentary Debates was held on the 13th of August 2012, wherein an orientation was taken for the new entrants by the experienced debaters like AakankshaSaxena, NiharikaBapna, HarshavardhanGanesan, Zacarias Joseph and NiranjanaMenon. The orientation was followed by a demo debate. Many such sessions were held by the seniors wherein the procedures, argumentation, strategies etc were discussed.
An orientation session along with a mock UN was also held in August by HarshavardhanGanesan.
The debate qualifiers which were held on the 31st of August and 1st of September saw a participation of over 75 students. The debate qualifier for the year 2012-2013 was held in an Asian’s Parliamentary debate format spread over 5 rounds. The debates were chaired by experienced debaters from ILS Law College as well as Symbiosis Law College, Pune. The team of Madhupreetha E, Krithika S. and Oscar Abraham (all V BSL) was the highest ranking team, while NamitOberoy (II BSL) was the highest ranked speaker. Nikita (I BSL) was adjudged best adjudicator.
Based on these qualifier results, various teams have been sent to represent ILS Law College, Pune at debates around the country. So far over 25 teams have represented ILS at 10 events which included debates like the Xaviers, Mumbai BP, the NALSAR Hyderabad BP, the IIT Mumbai BP and NLIU Bhopal PD.
The team comprising of AakankshaSaxena and NiharikaBapna were finalists while the team of Siddhart Kale and RaghavVenkatesh were semi-finalists and HarshavardhanGanesan and ZacariasJospeph reached the quarters at the NALSAR Hyderabad BP. Shruti Deb broke as an adjudicator to the quarter-finals.
The team of Oscar Abraham, Zacarias Joseph and NamitOberoy broke to the Quarter finals at the NLIU Bhopal PD. At the Xaviers Mumbai BP, Shruti Deb won the best adjudicator prize, while AkhilaPalem broke as an adjudicator to the quarter breaks. The team of SanksritiSidanaand Harish Adwat made the finals of the Novice Debate and Tanushree Nigam and ChandniChawla made the semi-finals of the main breaks.
Symposia National PD held by Symbiosis College of Management Studies saw a participation of 3 teams from ILS Law College. The team of ZainabLokhandwala, MrinmayeeKatdare and JanhaviPande won the debate while Madhupreeta E, Anvitha and Krithika S were runners-up. The Team of Zacarias Joseph, Oscar Abraham and HarshavardhanGanesan reached the semi-finals of the debate.
Various other students are expected to participate in many more debates like these over the next few months.
Apart from participation at various debates, the students have been actively participating in weekly debate sessions held by the debating society. Over 20 students have been debating every week in these practice sessions.
1st Justice Tarkunde National Parliamentary Debate 2013
The Debating Society of ILS Law College, Pune in association with M/s Karanjawala and Co., New Delhi organized the 1st Justice Tarkunde National Parliamentary Debate 2013 from the 19th to the 21st of January 2013. The debate saw a participation of 30 teams and 40 adjudicators from all over the country from several prestigious institutions including IIT Bombay, NALSAR Hyderabad, RVCE Bangalore, NUJS Kolkata, NLU-Jodhpur, MSRIT, Bangalore and Symbiosis Law School, Pune. The sponsors for the event included All India Reporter, Nagpur and Arthtech Knowledge Solutions, Pune.
The format of the debate was 3 on 3 Asian’s Parliamentary Debate. 5 prelim rounds were held on the first two days of the debate, and the quarter-finals, semis and finals on the last day. The participants debated various topics ranging children’s issues, social taboos, war, conflict and genocide, and the current burning topic of rape. 8 teams broke to the quarter-finals and out of 40 adjudicators, there were 16 breaking adjudicators.
Semi-finalists at the debate were AV Cross comprising of VaishnaviRao, Akash Date and Tushar and Mohan Krishna, Samith and PrithuParimal of Jindal Global Law School. The semi-finalist teams were awarded a prize money of Rs. 5000/- each.
The teams Sodexo Cross consisting of AdityaShetty (from SPIT, Mumbai), SouradipSen and VaibhavPittie (from IIT Bombay) and MSRIT Bangalore comprising of SharadaSrinivasan, RadhikaRadhakrishnan and SukrutGejji were the finalists at the tournament. The finals were adjudged by DebopriyoMoulik (from ILS Law College, Pune), AashaySahay, KaushikMuddaNitish, and Sparshit (all from RVCE Bangalore). In the Final Round, the Motion for the debate was “This House will pay all members of the Indian Parliament an annual salary of Rupees Five Crores.”
Sodexo Cross was adjudged the Best team at the debate with a prize money of Rs. 21000/- , while MSRIT coming in as Runners-up were awarded Rs. 12000/-. The Best Speaker award was given to SouradipSen of IIT Bombay who was awarded prize money of Rs. 6000/-.
The Justice Jahagirdar Prize for Best Adjudicator was given to KaushikMudda of RVCE, Bangalore, including a cash prize of Rs. 6000/- while the second best adjudicator award with a prize money of Rs. 4000/- was given to Partha S. Sharma of IIT Bombay. The Best internal adjudicator prize of Rs. 2000/- was bagged by DebopriyoMoulik
The Core Committee for the Debate Society comprises of Geetanjali Joshi, VaibhavCharalwar, AakankshaSaxena, NiharicaBapna (all V BSL), NiranjanaMenon, Shantanu Singh, VividhTandon, (IV BSL), HarshavardhanGanesan, Zacarias Joseph, Shruti Deb and PushkarGhare (all III BSL).