Judge who gave living entity status to Ganga, Sukhna Lake retires

Chandigarh, October 7

Justice Rajiv Sharma, the judge who gave living entity status to river Ganga, the Sukhna Lake and the animal kingdom, today retired as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court after putting in more than 13 years of service.

Known for his concerns for nature and environment, Justice Sharma delivered landmark judgments such as deletion of caste from FIRs, directives for preventing suicides by farmers and abolishing centuries old system of solitary confinement of death penalty convicts.

Justice Sharma was also known for his unending tirade against drug menace and series of other reformist orders in the realm of education, health and mental health. A Bench headed by Justice Sharma also ordered cracked down on encroachments in Chandigarh and ordered the removal of vendors from unauthorised sites.

He was also known for his quickness, particularly in deciding murder appeals. Matters pending for decades were decided after hearings lasting maximum up to three hours. He decided, in all, approximately 80,000 cases. He was appointed an Additional Judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on April 3, 2007, and was transferred in September 2016 to the Uttarakhand High Court, where he was appointed as the Acting Chief Justice in August 2018. Justice Sharma was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court in November 2018 and remained the Acting Chief Justice for sometime. — TNS