Justice Kurian Joseph on Friday became the third Supreme Court judge to recuse himself from hearing of a case filed by former Kerala Transport Minister Thomas Chandy, who is facing allegations of land encroachment for his luxury resort.

Justice Joseph withdrew himself from hearing the petition filed by Chandy challenging November 14, 2017, order of the Kerala High Court that had dismissed his plea against the report of Alappuzha district collector on alleged encroachments by a company in which he had a stake.

Earlier Justices A M Sapre and A M Khanwilkar had also recused from the matter.

The apex court registry had last month received a letter from a lawyer representing Chandy that it should not be assigned to a bench in which Justice Sapre is one of the judges.

Third judge recuses from hearing Chandy's case