Meet Anita Jha: The Madhubani Lawyer Who Has Practised from Her Car for 13 Years

Wanted chamber, landed on car backseat

From 10 to 11 am until approximately 5 pm, the car provides a safe haven for the woman lawyer at the court grounds in the city’s Jaldhari Chowk neighbourhood, where she prepares pleadings, advises clients, and develops legal strategies.

Every court working day, Anita leaves her house in Kakraul village in Madhubani district at around 10 am. It takes her about 40 minutes to travel the 12-kilometre distance to the court parking lot.

Anita clad in all black — a black saree, a black cardigan and her dark lawyer’s robes, speaks with some pain in her voice. “Despite the vast size of the courthouse, in my 28 years of practice, no chamber was allotted for me or any other female lawyers.”

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She recalls clearly the day, March 1, 2013, when she initially called for a chamber for female lawyers in the court compound following its construction, only to be “humiliated” by her male colleagues.

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“It’s been 13 years since a common space for women lawyers was inaugurated at the district court. However, only a few days later, the sign denoting it as the women’s chamber was removed, and the names of other male seniors were put up instead,” Anita recalls.

However, the first request for a workspace was made in 2011 when Anita claimed that female counsel should have a chamber because they worked nonstop in the courtroom from 10 am to 4 pm.

A year earlier, Anita had collected around Rs 15 lakh for the chamber for women, which was never allotted to them.

In 2013, upon finding that the women’s chamber sign was removed and replaced with a name of a male lawyer, Anita and 10-12 women lawyers took their grievances to the local bar association secretary and president and asked them, “What have you done? Where are we supposed to sit now?”

The men had no answers.

Anita was born in 1968 in Bihar, which was then a single state. Her mother was a homemaker while her father worked in the courts. (Photo: Abhinav Jha)

‘People hurled abuses, removed my table, chair, but I stayed’

Anita claims that it was her outspokenness that landed her in the centre of criticism, with the male bastion taunting her and saying, “She wants land here.”

Refusing to be discouraged, Anita put up with the humiliation and kept going back to the court.

“Eventually, I decided to set up a little office with just a table and chair, but even those were abruptly taken away in a matter of days. They ridiculed my desire for a fitting chamber, writing it off as a sign of a broken mind. The environment became poisonous as I was followed through the hallways by murmurs that quickly escalated into overt, in-person verbal abuse. All of this took place in the centre of the nation’s justice system, in full daylight,” she says.

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For Anita, the months of February and March 2013 marked a sea change. She was standing in the Ganges’ hallowed waters while attending the Maha Kumbh Mela when she had a single, desperate thought: “I need to leave Madhubani.”

However, a more profound reality surfaced during that introspective moment. She understood that fleeing was not the solution. Her birthplace shaped her career, her mission, and her entire being.

“This is my identity,” she reminded herself, “I have to do it here if I want to succeed. Where would I even go?”

Car as symbol of defiance

Her decision to start the practice from her car was not only a symbol of defiance but also a protest against the bullying she experienced from those of the opposite gender.

Thirteen years later, Anita consistently shows up for work, meets her clients in the car, and gets ready for the hearings. She not only made her presence known but also showed her tenacity in a compound where men predominate.

She claims that her car’s chamber is a symbol of her pratirodh, or resistance.

She claims that her car’s chamber is a symbol of her pratirodh, or resistance. (Photo: Abhinav Jha)

She has embraced this environment as her protest against gender discrimination in a male-dominated area like the judiciary, even though she is aware and upset that what has happened and is happening should not be the outcome of her justified demand for the women’s chamber.

“Women don’t have a home; after marriage, even their parental home ceases to be theirs. I have no home; everything I own is in this car—my work, my identity, everything,” Anita says. 

“My life is in this car,” she declares.

The dearth of clean toilets has forced Anita to not drink water for hours on a busy work day, for she dreads the idea of stepping into one and contracting an infection.

“I leave my home at around 10 am, and throughout the day, as long as I stay, I do not drink water to avoid going to the toilet. There is no clean toilet except for a public toilet, which is often dirty,” Anita says.

Journey from ‘pink’ to ‘red’ to ‘white’

From a stage of innocence and naivety to an act of disobedience to ultimately finding peace and letting go, Anita’s journey is metaphorically traced by the transition from a pink automobile to a red one and ultimately a white hatchback.

Her decision to start the practice from her car was not only a symbol of defiance but also a protest against the bullying she experienced from those of the opposite gender. (Photo” Abhinav Jha)

Anita, seated next to a pile of multi-coloured legal files and documents, vividly recalls her first car, when she started using it as her chamber.

“Back in 2013, I first started working in my mother-in-law’s car, which was a pink Zen. After some time, when I began living with my mother, I used her red car as my chamber,” she says.

Anita bought the white hatchback with her own money in 2022.

Father’s nudge for law

Anita was born in 1968 in Bihar, which was then a single state. Her mother was a homemaker while her father worked in the courts.

From childhood until marriage, she resided in a number of locations in Bihar and Jharkhand. They had to relocate to a new city each time her father was relocated. Her love of reading and learning, however, did not change despite these shifts.

She recounts with admiration that she used to spend 18 hours a day studying when she was younger and finished her education at locations ranging from what is now Jamshedpur to Bettiah and Madhubani.

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After earning her intermediate degree in Madhubani, she married young in 1986 and had a son shortly after.

Nevertheless, she pursued her education after being married, earning a BA and MA in ancient history from the Madhubani degree institution.

“Back then, I had completed B.Ed. and wanted to get into the teaching line, because I was inspired by my husband, as he was a professor of ancient history. But it was my father who convinced me to take up a law degree, and the rest is history,” Anita says.

Anita was familiar with the legal system, courts, and courtroom operations. However, the idea of a woman going to law school was almost unheard of in an era and area where she was growing up. In the 1980s, it was unusual for women in India to attend law schools and launch their own legal practices.

In 1989, Anita enrolled for an LLB degree from Chandradhari Mithila Mahavidyalayan, Darbhanga. She says that at that time, she was only woman in her batch.

“Back then, there were evening classes in CM college. I would leave for college at 7:30 am, and sometimes, due to evening classes, I wouldn’t get home until late at night. I was fortunate that my family always supported me. There was also an academic environment in my in-laws’ home, so I was able to continue my studies,” Anita says.

A tragic turn and a changing attitude

Anita’s life, however, took an unexpected turn when her husband and partner for 27 years died in 2013.

Though her family stood by her during her predicament, and she was back to her old self, she saw people’s attitudes changing towards her.

“My legitimate demands were labelled as being too demanding,” she says.

Anita adds, “For me, that time felt like someone had snatched away my protection. My husband was a journalist. As long as he was alive, he was like a shield for me. But as soon as he was gone, people thought I was alone and that my voice could be silenced.”

She remembers how becoming a widow altered her outlook on life. “I used to see cases that belonged to other people before this, but after that, I used to see them with compassion.”

Anita’s life took an unexpected turn when her husband and partner for 27 years died in 2013. (Photo: Abhinav Jha)

Career shaping cases

Anita remembers how thrilled and inquisitive she was when she first began practising.

“Section 498A went into effect in 1984. I still recall being an advocate for women’s rights as soon as I began practising law. At the time, both the anti-dowry statute and the Domestic Violence Act were relatively new.”

She states firmly, “I would represent the women involved in the cases that came under these laws.”

Despite being legally resolved, she claims that she has never forgotten a few cases from her career.

“A few years ago, I had a case involving a 60-year-old widow. No one was willing to take her case, and she lived alone. Someone recommended me to her, and she came to me. When I saw that woman’s FIR, I was horrified. The day changed me, and even now, I’m afraid to be alone.”

The woman had been gangraped by her neighbours. And when she recounted her ordeal, people didn’t believe her.

“That’s when I took on her case,” Anita adds.

Over the course of her more than 28-year career, Anita has resolved almost 20,000 cases and is still counting.

The lawyer now specialises in cases involving the POCSO Act, marriage disputes, and dowry abuse.

“I have seen society through the law, and I have realised that criminals do not need punishment, they need help,” she says.

Another case that impacted her was when she was appointed as a counsel by the court to represent an elderly man, who had killed his son after a fight in one of the murder cases.

“The case’s specifics led her to wonder how a father could act in such a way towards his son.”

After spending years in the justice system, Anita realises that perpetrators of crimes need help more than punishment.

‘Anita madam one of the best criminal lawyers’

“I was not there in 2013, but we have always seen Anita madam that her car is parked in the parking area and she practises from there,” says Atul Kumar Jha, a young attorney who has been practising at the district court for a few years.

She goes to the courts whenever there is a hearing, he claims.

He emphasised that there aren’t many women in this field and that “Anita madam’s” accomplishment of becoming a lawyer despite several obstacles is admirable.

Atul, who is relatively new to the practice there, recalls hearing that the issue of chamber allotment to Anita stems from a gender bias.

He characterises the working conditions for women lawyers marred by “a little bit of a misogynistic environment” with the lack of “basic facilities for women, like a toilet, drinking water, etc., and in that situation, they have to work”.

Anita is regarded by Atul as one of the most capable solicitors in criminal matters, especially those involving cruelty to women and cases under the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act.

Over the course of her more than 28-year career, Anita has resolved almost 20,000 cases and is still counting. (Photo: Abhinav Jha)

Another advocate, Saddam Arif, began practising in the Madhubani district court two years ago.

According to him, Anita’s clients are constantly waiting for her in the parking lot and swarm her car as soon as she gets there.

“Everyone sees that she comes in the car, practises, and leaves. She doesn’t go inside,” he says, as Anita steps into her car and prepares to go home.