Courthouses and the legal system in India

We got to talk about India’s legal system today and got to visit the district court. From the outside and at a distance, the building looks just like a courthouse in the U.S., but upon sight of the courthouse, I couldn’t believe that it was a courthouse. There were broken windows, the stairs looked like the carpet hadn’t been changed in 50 years, chairs broken, and people just everywhere! It’s so different than a courthouse in the U.S. where everything is kept clean and there are clean, unbroken benches for everyone to sit at. All the attorneys and lawyers were just sitting at one table in the middle of the room, which was interesting. What I really liked, however, was how the judge was greeted when someone left or entered the room; you must bow slightly with your hand over your heart or your hands put together in the middle of your body. I thought that was really respectful, whereas in the U.S. you may just get up and leave quickly and quietly.

It’s intriguing when we learned in lecture how corrupt the government is here. It takes nearly 25 years for a case to be fully settled, and it is really hard to get to the high court and Supreme Court. Also, it was interesting how judges are picked. For the small claims court the judge moves up in rank, but the higher courts, a government official will choose someone to be the judge. Furthermore, the small claims court cases are all done in the local language (Kannada), while the higher courts are all in English. It must be difficult if someone doesn’t know English to be in the higher courts, and if you don’t know the local language, you can’t be a judge in the smaller claims court.

As far as corruption goes, India’s government has been getting better, but still is quite corrupt. In the book Being Indian we read how people can pay/bribe officials to get a job… nearly 2 crore (20,000,000 rupees!) just to get a job! Here I posted a picture of what I could get of the courthouse… looks nice until you go inside!