Nandita started her engagement with politics in the 1970s with the women’s movement and the human rights movement. She gave up her career in journalism and took to law. She started practicing in the Supreme Court in 1982. Her first case was on the human rights violations by Indian security forces in the North East. Since then she has represented religious minorities, women, bonded and migrant workers and set precedent in refugee law.
She documented her work in articles and more recently in her books which include Many Faces of Kashmiri Nationalism (2015), Kuknalim Naga Armed Resistance Testimonies of Leaders, Pastors, Healers and Soldiers (2019) and her memoirs Flavours of Nationalism (2018).