In Court – As an Observer, Not a Defendant
The Bombay High Court is an incredible looking building from the outside (click here). The inside is sort of ancient fortress-like. The courtrooms all lie along the front of the building, and along the back is a corridor open to the outside. From this corridor all the courtrooms can be accessed. None of the courts are air conditioned expect for the Chief Justice’s Court, and all the rooms have 30ft. ceilings. I sat in the Chief’s Court and listened to a case. The cases in the High Court are open to the public. The advocates argue into amplified microphones, and the justices could use microphones too but choose not to. So I could only pick up what the advocate was saying, and even that was difficult through the heavy accent. Plus cases are pushed in and out quickly, and there is no background introduction given before cases are heard. So I don’t really know what the case was about, although I did hear legal words like “rights.” (and sorry, no photos allowed in the High Court)
I was at court because our company is appealing a ruling made against it in regards to a design for an oil bottle cap that my company has legally registered. Among the many household products my company makes is coconut oil, which Indians put in their hair. Another coconut oil company is using a bottle with a similar cap. A lower court said the design of the cap wasn’t legally registerable, and we’re appealing that ruling.
It took us over an hour in the mid-morning traffic to get to the Court, and when our matter came before the two judges, our advocate (the name for an attorney in India who argues before a court) was busy in another hearing, so we had to reschedule our hearing for next Monday. Supposedly our attorney is famous as India’s foremost authority on intellectual property law, and he knows U.K. law too. So when he doesn’t show for court, we can’t really get mad at him.
The High Court has appellate jurisdiction over cases from lower courts in Maharashtra and Goa. Lower than the High Court are a civil court and a criminal court. Appellate jurisdiction means that if you don’t like the ruling you got in the lower court, the High Court will hear your appeal. The High Court has original jurisdiction over cases worth a certain amount of big money. This means our oil bottle cap case was originally heard in the High Court, i.e. not the lower courts. There are many courtrooms in the High Court, and the judges don’t hear cases sitting all together. They usually hear cases alone or sitting two together.
Inside the High Court there are many people dressed in the white pants and kurta with the Gandi cap – the same outfit Prof. Rama was wearing at the wedding. That cap is the cap Nehru was always wearing (click here for Nehru's photo and here for Nehru's bio). It’s traditional Maharashtrian dress. I saw many men wearing it in Nasik, and I guess at the Bombay High Court it counts for dressing up. And speaking of dressing up, people don’t wear suits. It’s just too hot. Advocates, though, don’t get much of a break. They wear a special black coat and white shirt with a white kerchief around their necks and through their collars. When they go into court they put on a black robe. You can call lawyers “black coat wallahs.”
I also went to the library of the High Court, and it looked to me pretty much how I expected the library of the Bombay High Court to look. The ceilings were tall, and all the books had tattered, brown bindings and covers. There were long, old wooden tables with more books haphazardly scattered and stacked on them. As many ceiling fans as were able to spin on the same plane were hanging from the ceiling. They hung from long poles that brought them down to be nearer to people’s heads. Black coat wallahs were hunched over books reading and writing at the tables. The room reminded me of something from Indiana Jones.
Court adjourned for lunch at 2p.m., and I went by myself to the Government Law College, the law school in Mumbai. It’s not the stately affair that is the High Court. It’s not the best law school in India, but I do not think it is a bad law school. The building is boringly designed and is made from cream-colored plaster. One of the halls smelled like urine, and nothing was air-conditioned. The classrooms looked like they could have been college classrooms in the U.S. in the 1930s. There were long, old wooden benches behind long, old wooden writing desks. It had a very old world feel. The library did too, but again, it wasn’t as stately in its old world charm as was the library in the Bombay High Court. The books were of the same brown and tattered variety, and the library at Pitt Law is probably 10 times bigger. I tried to introduce myself to the librarian and tell him where I went to school and what I was doing in Mumbai, and I guess he spoke English, but he couldn’t understand my accent. He said, “I cannot understand your language.”
I was at court because our company is appealing a ruling made against it in regards to a design for an oil bottle cap that my company has legally registered. Among the many household products my company makes is coconut oil, which Indians put in their hair. Another coconut oil company is using a bottle with a similar cap. A lower court said the design of the cap wasn’t legally registerable, and we’re appealing that ruling.
It took us over an hour in the mid-morning traffic to get to the Court, and when our matter came before the two judges, our advocate (the name for an attorney in India who argues before a court) was busy in another hearing, so we had to reschedule our hearing for next Monday. Supposedly our attorney is famous as India’s foremost authority on intellectual property law, and he knows U.K. law too. So when he doesn’t show for court, we can’t really get mad at him.
The High Court has appellate jurisdiction over cases from lower courts in Maharashtra and Goa. Lower than the High Court are a civil court and a criminal court. Appellate jurisdiction means that if you don’t like the ruling you got in the lower court, the High Court will hear your appeal. The High Court has original jurisdiction over cases worth a certain amount of big money. This means our oil bottle cap case was originally heard in the High Court, i.e. not the lower courts. There are many courtrooms in the High Court, and the judges don’t hear cases sitting all together. They usually hear cases alone or sitting two together.
Inside the High Court there are many people dressed in the white pants and kurta with the Gandi cap – the same outfit Prof. Rama was wearing at the wedding. That cap is the cap Nehru was always wearing (click here for Nehru's photo and here for Nehru's bio). It’s traditional Maharashtrian dress. I saw many men wearing it in Nasik, and I guess at the Bombay High Court it counts for dressing up. And speaking of dressing up, people don’t wear suits. It’s just too hot. Advocates, though, don’t get much of a break. They wear a special black coat and white shirt with a white kerchief around their necks and through their collars. When they go into court they put on a black robe. You can call lawyers “black coat wallahs.”
I also went to the library of the High Court, and it looked to me pretty much how I expected the library of the Bombay High Court to look. The ceilings were tall, and all the books had tattered, brown bindings and covers. There were long, old wooden tables with more books haphazardly scattered and stacked on them. As many ceiling fans as were able to spin on the same plane were hanging from the ceiling. They hung from long poles that brought them down to be nearer to people’s heads. Black coat wallahs were hunched over books reading and writing at the tables. The room reminded me of something from Indiana Jones.
Court adjourned for lunch at 2p.m., and I went by myself to the Government Law College, the law school in Mumbai. It’s not the stately affair that is the High Court. It’s not the best law school in India, but I do not think it is a bad law school. The building is boringly designed and is made from cream-colored plaster. One of the halls smelled like urine, and nothing was air-conditioned. The classrooms looked like they could have been college classrooms in the U.S. in the 1930s. There were long, old wooden benches behind long, old wooden writing desks. It had a very old world feel. The library did too, but again, it wasn’t as stately in its old world charm as was the library in the Bombay High Court. The books were of the same brown and tattered variety, and the library at Pitt Law is probably 10 times bigger. I tried to introduce myself to the librarian and tell him where I went to school and what I was doing in Mumbai, and I guess he spoke English, but he couldn’t understand my accent. He said, “I cannot understand your language.”
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