KF winding up petition: another judge recuses himself

Justice Anand Byrareddy on Friday recused himself from the proceedings in a winding-up petition admitted against Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, as one of company's affiliates in the case had engaged a law firm that employed his son.

Over a period of about two months, Byrareddy had admitted four winding-up petitions filed by creditors against Vijay Mallya's UB Group companies, seeking the winding-up and liquidation of UB Holdings and Kingfisher Airlines.Two winding-up petitions were admitted in favour of Aerotron and a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India, fighting for loan recovery from Kingfisher Airlines, while two others were admitted in favour of BNP Paribas and Avions de Transport Regional against UB Holdings.

Creditors had moved the court to recover dues of Rs 7,400 crore from Kingfisher and Rs 600 crore from UB Holdings.The first instance of Byrareddy's recusal in the matter came earlier this year in January in the hearing of the appointment of a provisional liquidator in the BNP Paribas winding-up petition against UB Holdings.

This is not the first time that a judge recused himself from the case. Justice J P Devadhar, hearing Vodafone's Rs 8,500-crore transfer pricing case in the Bombay High Court, recused himself in the matter, saying his son-in-law had worked with KPMG, an advisory firm that represented Vodafone before the income-tax department's Dispute Resolution Panel.In a case in the Allahabad High Court filed by Reliance Power, Justice B S Chauhan recused himself citing an instance in which his daughter had advised Reliance Industries as part of a law firm.