Bihar Lawyer Runs Practice From Car for 13 Years

Every morning at 10 AM, a white Tata Tiago pulls into Madhubani District Court in Bihar, and something remarkable happens. Before the engine stops, clients surround the car to meet their lawyer, 57-year-old Anita Jha, who conducts her entire legal practice from the backseat.

For 13 years, this car has been Jha's office, library, and meeting room. She prepares legal documents, advises clients, and builds case strategies all from the parking lot near the jail van.

The reason she works this way would anger anyone who believes in fairness. In 2013, after the district court built a chamber specifically for women lawyers, male colleagues removed the women's sign within days and took over the space for themselves.

Jha had spent two years fundraising for that chamber, collecting 15 lakh rupees to create a workspace where women lawyers could prepare between their 10 AM to 4 PM court sessions. When she and a dozen other women lawyers protested to the bar association, the leaders had no answers.

The harassment got worse. Male colleagues mocked Jha's request for workspace, calling her mentally unstable. When she set up a simple table and chair in a hallway, they removed it and hurled insults at her in the courthouse itself.

During a trip to the Maha Kumbh Mela in early 2013, Jha considered leaving Madhubani entirely. But standing in the Ganges, she realized running away wasn't the answer. This was her home, her identity, and her fight to win.

So she bought a car and turned it into her protest. Every working day for 13 years, she has driven 12 kilometers from her village to the courthouse, parking in the same spot and working from her backseat.

Why This Inspires

Jha's mobile office represents something powerful beyond one woman's determination. In 28 years of practice at Madhubani District Court, not a single permanent chamber has been allocated to women lawyers despite the courthouse's vast size.

Her daily presence in that parking lot keeps the injustice visible. Clients keep coming because she keeps showing up, proving that obstacles can't stop someone truly committed to their calling.

The car isn't just transportation. It's a statement that says discrimination won't win, and justice can be served even from the most unconventional places.

Jha calls her car chamber her "pratirodh," meaning resistance, and every case she wins from that backseat proves her point.