NAINITAL: Justice Rajiv Sharma, who delivered landmark orders such as granting living entity status to Ganga and the animal kingdom, was appointed the acting chief justice of the Uttarakhand high court . Justice Sharma was appointed the acting CJ last week.

Born in October 1958, Justice Sharma has so far heard more than 75,000 cases. After joining the Himachal Pradesh HC in 2002, he was appointed additional judge in April 2007 and became a permanent judge in March 2013. He was then transferred to Uttarakhand HC where he assumed office in September 2016. Apart from granting living entity status to Ganga and the animal kingdom, Sharma has delivered judgments abolishing the 150-year-old patwari system in Uttarakhand and solitary confinement of death penalty convicts.

The judge was part of the division bench that cracked down on encroachments in Dehradun and ordered the state government to remove all illegal structures within four weeks. Another of his recent judgments — again as part of a division bench — was the order to rescue elephants being used for joyrides and safaris in resorts and forest reserves within 24 hours and take under state protection.

The chief justice has taken a strict stand on protection of wildlife. In his latest remarks on Friday, he pulled up the Uttarakhand forest department over its lack of concern for wildlife safety and said, “If you cannot protect tigers and elephants, we will ask the Centre to denotify national parks of the state and then you can create a race course and run cars over there.”

