The Chennai Bench of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has formally recorded that one of its members was approached by “one of the most revered members of the higher judiciary” seeking a favourable order in an insolvency matter. Judicial Member Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma recused himself from hearing the case on August 13 after disclosing this.
The case relates to an appeal filed in 2023 by Attluru Sreenivasulu Reddy, suspended director of KLSR Infratech Limited, against AS Met Corp Pvt Ltd and KLSR Infratech represented by its Insolvency Resolution Professional. The appeal challenges an order admitting the Hyderabad-based company into the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
In its order, a two-member bench of Justice Sharma and Technical Member Jatindranath Swain noted: “We are anguished to observe, that one of us, Member (Judicial), has been approached by one of the most revered members of the higher judiciary of this country for seeking an order in favour of a particular party. Hence, I recuse to hear the matter.” The order directed that the case be placed before the NCLAT chairperson for reallocation to another bench.
According to Bar & Bench, Justice Sharma had shown lawyers in the case a message he received on his mobile phone before announcing his decision to step aside. The contents of the message were not revealed in court and remain undisclosed.
This is not the first time Justice Sharma has withdrawn from a case citing inappropriate approaches. In June 2023, he recused himself from another matter, saying his conscience did not permit him to continue after a party tried to influence him. Again in November 2024, he recused from a different case after disclosing that his own brother had sent him a message seeking favourable orders; in that instance, he reproduced the text of the message in his order.
With his latest recusal, the matter concerning KLSR Infratech and AS Met Corp will now be placed before the NCLAT chairperson for the constitution of a fresh bench to hear the appeal.