CALL FOR PAPERS FROM LAW STUDENTS IN THE FIELD OF TAX LAWS FOR THE PADMA VIBHUSHAN N. A. PALKHIVALA MEMORIAL RESEARCH PAPER COMPETITION, 2021

CALL FOR PAPERS FROM LAW STUDENTS IN THE FIELD OF TAX LAWS FOR THE PADMA VIBHUSHAN N. A. PALKHIVALA MEMORIAL RESEARCH PAPER COMPETITION, 2021

The Padma Vibhushan N. A. Palkhivala Memorial Moot Court (Virtual) and Research Paper Competition, 2021, November 26-28, 2021 is hosted by the Maharashtra National Law University-Mumbai (MNLU-Mumbai) in association with the All-India Federation of Tax Practitioners (AIFTP) and the Goods and Services Tax Practitioners Association of Maharashtra (GSTPAM).

The registration for the Moot Court Competition can be done here. The last date for registration for the Moot Court Competition is extended to October 15, 2021.

The Research Paper Competition introduced in 2005 with a view to develop writing and research skill in the field of taxation.

The topics for this year’s Research Paper are:

Topic 1: Section 255(7) of the Income-tax Act, 1961: Faceless Income-tax Appellate Tribunal – Does it pass the test of Constitutional validity?

► Legislative competence: Ministry of Finance vis-à-vis Ministry of Law & Justice

► Due process of law & future functioning of the Tribunal

► Digitalisation of the Judiciary

► Position in other Jurisdictions

► Any other area(s) the author deems fit.

Topic 2: Supply of services by an “intermediary” to a foreign recipient – Constitutional validity of Section 13(8)(b) of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (“IGST”) read with Section 8(2) thereof – Whether the tax levied by the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 pursuant to these two provisions is ultra vires the Constitution?

► Can laws made by Parliament under Article 286(2), that is the IGST Act, be challenged on touchstone of Article 286(1)?

► Can Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 be challenged as ultra vires Article 286(1)?

► Extra-territorial operation and territorial nexus – Parliament vs. State Legislatures – whether Section 13(8)(b) read with Section 8(2) enables State legislation to have extra-territorial effect and if so, whether this per se can be a ground to strike down legislation?

► Tax policy and judicial review.

► Interplay of IGST Act and the legislative competence of State Legislatures.

► Role of economic theories in Constitutional adjudication.

► Is the transaction classifiable under Section 7(5)(c) of the IGST Act instead of Section 8(2)?

► Impact of Sections 13(8)(b) and Section 8(2) of IGST Act being ultra vires or the transaction being classified as under Section 7(5)(c) instead of under Section 8(2) of the IGST Act?

Topic 3: Access to Justice in Tax matters (Direct taxes, Indirect taxes (With special reference to GST) and Prosecution)

► Efficacy in delivery of Justice

► Foreign investors perspective

► Expansion constrains of the Judiciary

► Appointment of Ad hoc Judges

► Financial independence of the Judiciary

► Digitalization of the judiciary

► Any other area(s) the author deems fit.

The prestigious competition invites papers from students of law. The papers will be peer reviewed on several parameters. Details of the paper writing competition are as under:

1. PARTICIPATION AND REGISTRATION

1.1. Each paper can be authored by a maximum of two students. One student cannot write or co-write more than one paper.

1.2. Entries must be in English only.

1.3. Participation is restricted to students enrolled in either the 3-year LL.B. course or the 5- year integrated law course.

1.4. Participants are advised to register by sending a mail to mcs@mnlumumbai.edu.

1.5. Participants are advised to submit a short bio-data mentioning their full name, college name, contact number, email and postal address.

2. PRESENTATION

2.1. The research article must comprise of not less than 7,500 words and not more 10,000 words including footnotes.

2.2. The research paper should be typed on A4 size paper; font size of the body of the text must be 12, font type: Times New Roman, 1.5 Spacing and one-inch margins on each side.

2.3. Citing and referencing should be as per OSCOLA 4th Edition

2.4. There should be appropriate footnotes indicating the correct source of information. The footnotes may be typed in font size 9, Font type: Times New Roman, Single Spacing. However, two separate footnotes must be double spaced.

2.5. A bibliography, mentioning all the articles, books, references, websites etc referred to, should be made at the end.

2.6. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

2.7. Participants must also email a copy of their entry as a Read-Only MS-Word document to mcs@mnlumumbai.edu.

2.8. Copyrights of all authors are respected, but neither the AIFTP, ITAT Bar Association, The Goods and Service Tax Practitioners Association of Maharashtra (GSTPAM) nor Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai will be responsible for any infringement of the same.

2.9. Each entry shall be enclosed with a covering letter on the letterhead of the participating college along with a seal of the institution mentioning the name and class of the student.

2.10. Entries must reach the above-mentioned address on or before October 31, 2021 by 5:00 p.m. IST.

2.11. The organisers will not be responsible for any loss or non-delivery of the entries.

3. MARKING CRITERIA

3.1. Each paper will be marked on a total of 100 marks.

3.2. The decision of the judges shall be final.

3.3. The following is the criteria for marking and the marks allocated to each category:

Sr. No Marking Criteria Marks Allocated
1. Structure of Paper 20
2. Ingenuity of Ideas 15
3. Issues Covered 15
4. Language, Grammar & Style 15
5. Use of Law & Authorities, reference etc. 30

4. AWARDS

4.1. A Certificate of Merit, and a cash prize shall be awarded to each of the three best research papers.

4.2. The cash prize awarded shall be as follows:

First prize Rs. 10,000/-
Second prize Rs. 7,500/-
Third prize Rs. 5,000/-

4.3. Certificate of Participation will be issued to each of the participants.

4.4. The Best Paper will be published in the Souvenir which will be released on the occasion of the Padma Vibhushan N. A. Palkhivala Memorial Moot Court (Virtual) Competition, 2021.

4.5. The Best Paper will also be published along with a photograph of the participants in the AIFTP Journal, GSTPAM Journal and on website (www.itatonline.org)

4.6. All winners shall be duly intimated by E-mail or Telephone.

5. MISCELLANEOUS

5.1. For the purpose of this competition, each Paper shall be the original work of the participant/s. Any Paper found to be a copied work from any other original work, would be disqualified.

5.2. The Paper should not have been submitted to any other competition and/or should not have been published earlier.

5.3. All entries shall be deemed to be the property of the association which reserves the right of publication of the same.

5.4. If there arises any situation that is not contemplated in the Rules, the organizers decision on the same shall be final.

5.5. The organisers reserve the right to vary, alter, modify or repeal any of the above rules if so required and as they deem appropriate.

5.6. The authors should not send the papers for publication to any magazine, paper etc. without the prior consent of the organisers.

6. CONTACT DETAILS

Email Address: mcs@mnlumumbai.edu

Mobile:

Diya Dutta (Convenor, MCS): +91 88007 65832

Karina Katrak (Associate Convenor, MCS): +91 99200 98080

Vaishnavi Sharma (Associate Convenor, MCS): +91 77384 71919