diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index a3cbd32a89a..09a9c8eaaa2 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -163,6 +163,9 @@ Bug Fixes
 * SOLR-5800: Admin UI - Analysis form doesn't render results correctly when a
   CharFilter is used. (steffkes)
 
+* SOLR-5861: Recovery should not set onlyIfLeaderActive=true for slice in 'recovery'
+  state. (shalin)
+
 Optimizations
 ----------------------
 * SOLR-1880: Distributed Search skips GET_FIELDS stage if EXECUTE_QUERY
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/RecoveryStrategy.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/RecoveryStrategy.java
index cbff15e506b..0f62aaded36 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/RecoveryStrategy.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/RecoveryStrategy.java
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ public class RecoveryStrategy extends Thread implements ClosableThread {
       prepCmd.setState(ZkStateReader.RECOVERING);
       prepCmd.setCheckLive(true);
       prepCmd.setOnlyIfLeader(true);
-      if (!Slice.CONSTRUCTION.equals(slice.getState())) {
+      if (!Slice.CONSTRUCTION.equals(slice.getState()) && !Slice.RECOVERY.equals(slice.getState())) {
         prepCmd.setOnlyIfLeaderActive(true);
       }
       server.request(prepCmd);