The unlikely success of a novel justice delivery system in Bihar

In a sparsely furnished room with peeling wall paint, 69-year-old Ram Parvesh Bhagat was holding court. He wore a white kurta and pyjama, and leaned back in his chair, the only one with wheels in the room, as he listened to a poor couple and their daughter-in-law.

The daughter-in-law, Rashmi Devi, described the harassment she and her in-laws were facing from a relative over a small piece of land, in Ainkhan Bhimnichak village, in Bihar’s Patna district. “They throw stones at us from the roof when we walk past their homes, threaten us, say my mother-in-law has been possessed by a ghost,” Devi said, speaking softly but clearly. “We are poor, live in a broken hut and work as farm labour or sometimes daily wage workers. We are living in fear and so far, all our attempts to raise a complaint against him have failed.”

Bhagat interrupted her account with questions every now and then, seeking to understand the exact sequence of events, when the family had approached the police, how long they had been facing the problem.

The family, who belong to the Other Backward Classes category, explained that they had been beaten and threatened for over a year, since 2023, and that going to...

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