NL Interview : Karuna Nundy on legal activism, new IT rules, and transparency in the legal system

Karuna Nundy is an advocate in the Supreme Court of India and an international human rights lawyer, known for her work in constitutional law, human rights, gender equality, and freedom of speech. In this interview with Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, she talks about her recent book Arbitration in India, the new IT rules, media coverage of courts, and more.

On the potential dangers of excessive legal intervention in policy, Karuna says, “What I am concerned about is the complete opposite...The central government in particular is not being held accountable enough.”

Talking about the new IT rules, Karuna says there “seem to be fairly straightforward legal arguments” that the rules are “unconstitutional”. “They are against not just the ability for you to speak,” she says, “but the ability for me and the rest of the people in this conversation to hear.”

The conversation spans making courts more accessible to people lacking financial resources, gender ratios in courts, misinterpretation of judgements, and a lot more.

Watch.

Text by Aadi Jain