Asian Law College– which is a part of Asian Education Group and is ranked as one of the best Law Colleges in Delhi NCR – welcomed its new batch of B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. students by launching an impressive week-long Orientation Programme scheduled from Monday, 26th October 2020 to Saturday, 31st October 2020. But, in view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and keeping in mind the social distancing norms, this programme was organized virtually to benefit the students who have embarked upon a new phase in their academic life.
Ms. Karuna Nundy, International Human Rights Lawyer, United Nations and Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India was an Eminent Guest at this ALC Orientation 2020 who delivered a highly thoughtful LLS Lecture session on Friday, 30th October 2020 as part of the week-long Asian Law College B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. Orientation Programme 2020.
An advocate at the Supreme Court of India and an international human rights lawyer, Ms. Karuna Nundy represents and acts as legal policy adviser to governments, United Nations, companies and civil society movements. Her work focuses on constitutional law, commercial litigation and arbitration, media law and legal policy. An Economic Times jury included her prominently in a list of ‘Corporate India’s Fastest Rising Women Leaders’ and cited her as being ‘famous in the corporate world for her expertise in commercial law’.
Among her pro bono practice are included the Supreme Court litigation from the 1984 gas disaster and toxic waste dumps in Bhopal. She has also argued cases involving the rights of alleged terrorists, mentally ill people and class actions on sexual harassment. Moreover, Ms. Karuna’s advisory and policy work includes contributions to the Nepal Interim Constitution; a legislation workshop with the Senate of Pakistan; advice to the Government of Bhutan on compliance with human rights treaties; and legal reform in the Maldives with the Attorney General’s Office and the Chief Justice of the Maldives Supreme Court. In India, she drafted contributions to the new “anti-rape” laws and the Right to Food Act.
It may be mentioned here that Ms. Nundy has also played a significant role in drafting the anti-rape bill after the 2012 Delhi gang rape. In 2019, the UK foreign office appointed the lawyer to a new panel of experts to develop legal frameworks to protect freedom of the media across the globe.
Ms. Karuna Nundy received a degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. After a short stint as a TV journalist, she studied law at Cambridge University, and later pursued LL.M. from Columbia University, New York. She is qualified to practice in India and NY. She is interviewed and comments on free speech, gender and legal issues on the BBC, India Today, the New York Times, NPR, FAZ, NDTV and other media.
Delivering her LLS Lecture on Friday, 30th October 2020 at Asian Law College as part of the week-long ALC B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. Orientation Programme 2020, Ms. Karuna Nundy majorly spoke about her life, work and experiences during her illustrious career so far.
Thanking Dr. Supriya Srivastava of ALC for the “lovely” introduction, Ms. Karuna Nundy congratulated the new batch of ALC B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. students for choosing to study law, which she said, “is lot like love; either you fall for it or you don’t!” She then went on to describe her own life’s journey and said, “when I started, I wasn’t sure … but wanted to do something important and create some good impact on society. I began by becoming a TV journalist, which was interesting and fun … creating new story every day! And then, I decided to do a course in law and joined the law school at Cambridge University. After 3-year law degree, I got a fellowship from Columbia University for LLM and a clinical program opportunity to work with UN and especially on the case of Comfort Women of South Korea.” This was an eye-opening experience for her and she “realized that law is about different things in different situations and there are a lot of things that needs to be done for the amelioration of various aspects of human existence like war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Here, she also made reference to the legal challenges in the “Bhopal Gas Tragedy” and “Gujarat Riots” which made her realize that “the top quality required to Human Rights litigation is Perseverance and Resilience.”
Ms. Karuna Nundy then opened the session for questions from the students. A series of questions were put up by the new batch of B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. students of Asian Law College covering a range of subject matters like her experiences as Supreme Court lawyer, women inspirations that impacted her life, the role of social media for communicating legal & human rights issues, legal framework in India to help women in corporate sector, her experiences as a lawyer in UN, constitutional pitfalls in India, and so on. It goes without saying that the erudite guest speaker answered them all to the utmost satisfaction of the students.
Concluding her highly thoughtful LLS Lecture session, the eminent guest Ms. Karuna Nundy – known as a “Lawyer without Fear or Favour” – shared an important message for the new batch of ALC B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. students who had just embarked upon a new phase in their academic life. She said, “Courage is doing what is right. Throughout human history, lawyers have always been a bastion of civil liberation. Hence, it is incredibly important to be a lawyer. The question is whether we should do our job courageously without fear and favour, or succumb to cowardice and ignominy.”
