text: He obtained a doctorate in constitutional law from University of Cambridge for his thesis on Interpretation of Legislative Powers under Federal Constitutions and received a diploma in public administration from the University of London.
  Sharma began practicing law at Lucknow from 1940 where he taught law at the University and soon joined the Indian National Congress. In 1946, he was admitted to the Lincoln's Inn and taught at Cambridge University during 1946–47. The following year, he was appointed a Brandeis Fellow at Harvard University.
  Political career in Madhya Pradesh
  During 1948–49, Sharma underwent eight months' imprisonment for his leadership of the popular movement for merging the princely state of Bhopal with India. Although the Nawab of Bhopal had acceded his state to the Dominion of India, he had held out against signing the Instrument of Accession. The popular movement had the support of the Praja Mandal and an interim government with Chatur Narain Malviya as its head was constituted by the Nawab in 1948. However, as the movement gained support, the Nawab dismissed this government. Public pressure and the intervention of V. P. Menon led the Nawab to merge his state with the Indian Union in 1949 with the princely state reconstituted as Bhopal State.