Yet Another Indian State Declares All Animal Kingdom (including avian & aquatic life) as Living Entities With All Rights & Duties of a Living Person and All Citizens as Their Guardians

In a ground breaking judgement, Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that all animals are legal entities entitled to legal rights like human beings..

The High Court's order states:

The entire animal kingdom, including avian and aquatic, are declared legal entities having a distinct persona with corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person. All citizens throughout Haryana are hereby declared persons in loco parentis (responsible for a child in parents’ absence) as the human face for the welfare/protection of animals.

Justice Rajiv Sharma also included an appeal for compassion towards all animals and living creatures:

We have to show compassion towards all living creatures. Animals may be mute but we as a society have to speak on their behalf. No pain or agony should be caused to the animals. Cruelty to animals also causes psychological pain to them. In Hindu Mythology, every animal is associated with god. Animals breathe like us and have emotions. The animals require food, water, shelter, normal behavior, medical care, self-determination.

With this order High Court also issued 29 animal welfare oriented directions to be followed in Punjab and Haryana States of India. The complete order is available here .

Justice Rajiv Sharma is a well known champion for the cause of animals and the Nature. Last year, when he was working in the Uttarakhand State High Court bench, he was part of the bench that declared a similar ruling that made all citizens a guardian of whole animal kingdom and conferred animals legal rights. In 2017, he was part of the Bench that declared "rivers Ganga and Yamuna, all their tributaries, streams, every natural water flowing with flow continuously or intermittently of these rivers, as juristic/legal persons/living entities having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person." Later the order was extended to provide protection to all surrounding flora and fauna too.

This is a revolutionary judgement that will perhaps be set as a precedent for other states to follow.

This order depicts the values of Indian culture and philosophy to respect every life.

In this 104 page long order, Justice Sharma signs off as: