Terms, Conditions & Guidelines for Participation and Submissions

  1. The Contest opens on 10th May 2024
  2. The Contest closes on 30th September, 2024. Only entries received before midnight on 30th Sepember, 2024 will be considered. No entry shall be accepted after the deadline for submission has expired unless the deadline is extended by ILA. 
  3. All entries must be submitted online only at submissions@insolvencylawacademy.com
  4. The contest is open to persons above 25 years of age. 
  5. Only one entry per person is admissible. If a person submits more than one entry, all entries will be rejected and attract disqualification. The person submitting the entry should be the author (or a combination of authors) of the story submitted through the entry. A person cannot submit a story that has not been authored by him/her/that person.
  6. The Short Story should involve any or many elements of corporate or individual insolvency or bankruptcy, as understood or perceived in common parlance or in its technical form. Insolvency or bankruptcy may either be a central or a dominating theme, or a turning point in the story. It need not use legal or technical language or text. Name of real persons or insolvency cases should not be used. Entries must be in good taste.
  7. Stories must not have been already published on any social platform or in any book or otherwise, or should have featured amongst the winners in any competition.
  8. Stories must be written only in English. It should range between 2500 to 3000 words. It must not exceed 3000 words (including footnotes).
  9. Stories must be typed, double-spaced, on single-sided sheets and in a readable, 12-point font. Use one-inch margins all around; indent each paragraph 3 to 5 space. Do not include illustrations or pictures in the manuscript. Do not use fancy or script fonts for the text, except when stating character thoughts, which must be in italics.
  10. The Story should be easy to read, use proper grammar and punctuation, and correct spelling. Each page must be numbered. The title of the story must appear at the top of each page.
  11. Stories cannot be altered once entered. Stories will not be sent back. The author should keep its own copy. There will be no correspondence about submitted Stories.
  12. Do not put your name, phone number and email address on the Story.
  13. Any plagiarised work will be disqualified along with any other work submitted by the entrant.
  14. Stories will not be returned, so please retain a copy.
  15. The ILA staff, members of Jury, Pre-Jury and ESG Chairs are not eligible to enter the competition.
  16. A Jury will select the winner for the award and the collection of stories without being influenced by gender, caste, religion, and nationality of the entrant or any criterion or factor.
  17. A Pre-Jury comprising of internal and external resources identified by ILA shall shortlist 20 entries for review by the Jury. 
  18. All entries will be considered anonymously by the members of Pre-Jury and the Jury. In the absence of consensus, the decision of Jury shall be taken by majority. In the event of a split, the chairperson shall have the casting vote. The decision of the Jury shall be final and no queries or challenge will be entertained in that respect thereof.
  19. A story selected by the Jury for award and/or publication shall be the copyright of the author.
  20. By submission of entry, the participant is deemed to have given consent to ILA and the publisher to publish the story on any platform or mode at the sole discretion of ILA or use the story for screenplay or script for any documentary, film or TV/OTT series. No royalty or payment will be paid by ILA or publisher for publishing the story. ILA is not bound to publish the stories if the Jury is of the view that there are not adequate number of stories that qualify to publish a book.
  21. If a story is selected by the Jury, the author will not publish the story on any other platform, book, website, social media or any other public platform without prior express written consent of ILA. Such consent shall not be granted by ILA before the book is published.
  22. ILA has the absolute discretion to modify, amend, alter or withdraw and terms of the Contest. ILA may withdraw, re-schedule, cancel or postpone the Contest, or reject any Story received, without assigning any reason.
  23. All disputes shall be subject to jurisdiction of courts in New Delhi, India.