Karuna Nundy is an Indian lawyer at the Supreme Court of India and the focus of her work is on constitutional law, commercial litigation and arbitration, media law and legal.
Nundy has been a vocal advocate of women’s rights and also speaks out on various women related issues such as demanding period leaves at work or equal pay for women and so on.
On August 12, 2020, Karuna had tweeted her view point on why period leaves were a must for women. She then wrote,
Folks, period leave is like maternity leave. 1. Don’t take it if your period isn’t painful and 2. Don’t deny others’ pain because you’re such a pain free hero. Plus, we need an Equality Law which prevents discrimination by the patriarchy. Intersectional feminism requires us to rise above our relative similarity to the default male worker. And to throw everybody less proximate under the bus. *to not throw everybody less proximate under the bus.
Karuna has also time and again expressed herself about #EqualPay at work.
Katrina Jakobsdottir brought equal pay for equal work to Iceland and is now…Prime Minister. https://t.co/uNHbxGZn5x
— Karuna Nundy (@karunanundy) February 3, 2018
Recently, on a debate organised by former Mirror Now anchor Faye D’souza, Karuna spoke about how there should be value on women on changing every nappy, the time spent cuddling, taking care of your mother-in-law and your own mother; all of this needed to be quantified.
Should Homemakers Be Given Salaries?@karunanundy says, “I think there is no question but to put a value on all of the work that homemakers do. Not the love but the work that’s being done.”
Watch the full discussionhttps://t.co/CDRHy3vvqq pic.twitter.com/KC2f9x8Evo
— Faye DSouza (@fayedsouza) January 6, 2021
On other debate with News18, Karuna demanded that there should be automatic transfer of half salary and property to wives during the course of marriage.
I think there should be a direct cash transfer to all women by the State, also there should be an automatic claim over half of the salary & property of the husband: Sr. Lawyer @karunanundy tells @maryashakil on #NewsEpicentre pic.twitter.com/kJfa1tki6d
— News18 (@CNNnews18) January 7, 2021
However, contrary to her social media posts and prime time image, one of her former interns, Himangi Ticku, studying at The Australian National University, shared an extensive post via her Linkedin account. The below post was shared initially by twitter handle @TapashishC and later also amplified by independent journalist Deepika Bhardwaj.
Bhardwaj wrote,
So the one who goes on prime time talking about Gender Pay Gap, Workplace Equality, Paid Period Leaves blah blah allegedly doesn’t pay her own interns well, doesn’t have basic sanitation facilities in her office & treats others like dirt. The 9PM TV Feminist : @karunanundy
The linkedin post by the intern read as below:
Took me nearly a year to write this but I finally decided to share it #payyourinterns
Dear Ms. Nundy, thank you for being a terrible boss. Prior to my internship in 2019, I believed that you are a great lawyer/celebrity. The difference – simply take the words great and lawyer out from that sentence. The point of writing this is not to comment on your personality or question your knowledge of the law as doing so is simply beneath me. The aim is to give you honest feedback on what working for you is like. To protect others that look up to you from having a horrible experience. Silence can be dangerous, especially at a workplace, as it sets precedence allowing people to ill-treat others, even if there is no express intention to do so.
It is absolutely nauseating to see you promote issues like #workplaceequality and #periodleave when both are highly lacking in your own office.
It would be nice if you #payyourinterns for a change before educating others on workplace equality on 9 pm news. As disgracefully low as the salary of your interns is (which I never even got the cheque for), it is not the money I care about, but it shows your lack of appreciation and respect towards the people that work day & night for you.
It is far easier to say I am a feminist than to be one. Forget #periodleave, how about having basic sanitation facilities in the office for your employees so they don’t struggle when they have their period (or for crying out loud generally)?
Before calling out others on social media, I suggest you clean house first (quite literally!). A real mentor invests in their mentee’s aspirations, encourages them to ask questions, and shows how a mistake can be used as a learning opportunity. Your lack of interest was clear from my very first day as you did not even know my age (clearly you didn’t bother to read my CV).
For every young individual in the legal profession reading this – you have every reason to challenge my credibility and ask, ‘why should we believe this?’ You absolutely do not have to. But here is my request to you – choose your idols wisely! Don’t just read their ‘posts’ rather see how many ‘papers’ they have published. Don’t fall for how many ‘followers’ they have, rather seek ‘facts’. Stop falling for ‘tweets’ rather see what they are willing to ‘teach’ us. I was convinced that one should ‘never meet their idols’, but thankfully I recently learnt that the problem lies in idolizing the wrong person.
However, here is why I’d like to thank you – on my 12hr flight back, I got the time to seriously reflect on this experience and develop an even stronger work ethic. I vowed to always treat the people I work around with dignity, respect, and kindness. But most importantly, I developed a strong personal code of how I wish to be treated at work rather than worrying about offending someone older than me.
Lastly, since you claim to be a champion of our constitution and leave no opportunity to quote Shreya Singhal v Union of India – I hope you will appreciate my honesty and my ‘liberty of thought’.
Once the same went viral, Nundy acknowledged the authenticity of the post and also shared her part of the explanation stating,
Please see all the responses debunking this post, also the intern’s subsequent post expressing gratitude at how her issue was resolved.
Please see all the responses debunking this post, also the intern’s subsequent post expressing gratitude at how her issue was resolved.
— Karuna Nundy (@karunanundy) January 7, 2021
Since Ticku’s account is private we were not able to view her follow up post on the same.
Clarification From Karuna Nundy
This post is false and defamatory. You have also not sought my reaction.
— Karuna Nundy (@karunanundy) January 9, 2021
Hi Karuna,
While we have carried your earlier reaction, we are adding this too to the story.
If you wish to share more clarification, you can email us at [email protected] pic.twitter.com/Huk1jjZvP8
— Men’s Day Out (@MensDayOutIndia) January 9, 2021
The story has been further Updated and we are sharing linkedin public interactions
between Himangi and Karuna on the matter:
Mr Koul (Himangi’s uncle): Hey Himangi Ticku ‘ did you get paid … ?
Karuna: I’d like to, Mr. Koul, please see my message above, we couldn’t pay her on time, unlike her co intern Jade, because she gave her mother’s bank details abd couldn’t pick up the physical cheque Please encourage your niece to send her own bank details, her internship stretched over close to 2 months. It’ll be 16000/- for the time she spent
Karuna: I hate to share screenshots of private chats but looks like I have no choice left. As you can see below, I had asked twice before leaving when can I collect my cheque and got no response. I also informed the office staff that once I leave that cheque is meaningless for me here. I was told to send my bank details for the transfer. I sent both my Australia and India bank details. If the CA would have paid attention, as it is evident from the cheque itself the India account is a JOINT ACCOUNT in mine and my mother’s name. There have been no issues in the past re transfer of funds. In the spirit of the holidays and to end this chapter on a less bitter note, I request you with all my heart – Please transfer the money to any charity of your choice. I do not mean this sarcastically and it would genuinely make me happy. When you do, I would love to share that news on this very same platform.
Karuna: I never received this, I’m not sure why. Since trust us low between us right now, I’d be happy to send you screenshots of all our communication privately. I really wish you had just sent a reminder to me, and a privare communication with your concerns- ideally at the time they arose. Which charity would you prefer?
Himangi: Ma’am even you would appreciate that its a little hard to believe that you got every other message and conveniently just didn’t get just these two.. and why was I never informed if you’re CA was having issues making the transfer? Anyway we need to end this somewhere. I trust your judgment Ma’am, like I said, any charity of your choice. With your experience and after living in Delhi for so many years, I am sure you know some amazing charities.
Karuna: Himangi Ticku I’ve transferred 16k to Goonj. I’ve also sent you the screenshots of our last conversation. The money is towards supporting menstruating women in rural areas, something we both care about (I represented the tax free sanitary napkins case in SC).
Karuna: Hello all, Himangi, On consideration I don’t think my response to you should remain private. Your upset at not being treated as special could have been dealt with differently, as it is taking advantage of decency is the mark of a bully – one that would act out in far worse ways with people with less power. I hope you will find the moral courage to introspect and reflect on your approach to work and life. Happy holidays.
Himangi: Thank you Ms. Nundy for calling me lazy, entitled and now I am a bully too 🙂 Here’s my response, again. You won’t hear anymore from me after this, as I said in the chat- ending this here for both our sakes and peace of mind. Happy Holidays!
ALSO READ –
https://mensdayout.com/in-the-law/value-of-homemakers-work-same-as-hubbys-at-office/
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