Justice Rajiv Sharma of Punjab and Haryana high court retires

Known for expeditious disposal of cases, justice Sharma has delivered landmark judgments such as granting living entity status to the Ganga

Justice Rajiv Sharma of the Punjab and Haryana high court retired on Wednesday. He was the third senior-most judge at the high court.

Born in Shimla, he completed his studies at Himachal Pradesh University and entered legal profession in 1982. He was elevated as a judge in the Himachal Pradesh high court in 2007 and was transferred to the Uttarakhand high court in September 2016. He assumed charge in Chandigarh in November 2018, where he also served as the acting chief justice for two months.

Known for expeditious disposal of cases, justice Sharma has delivered landmark judgments such as granting living entity status to the Ganga and the animal kingdom. He has also delivered important judgments such as deletion of caste from FIRs, abolishing age-old system of solitary confinement for death penalty convicts and lately many reformist orders in the arena of environment, against drug menace and illegal mining issue in Punjab and Haryana.