New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed pleas filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Byju’s co-founder Riju Raveendran challenging a NCLAT Chennai order which denied the withdrawal of insolvency proceedings initiated by the BCCI. A bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan refused to interfere with the NCLAT’s April 17 order.
On April 17, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had set aside the appeals filed by BCCI and Byju’s Riju Ravindran seeking withdrawal of insolvency proceedings against Byju’s. NCLAT had held that any application to withdraw the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against Think & Learn Pvt. Ltd. (the company running Byju’s) requires the support of 90 per cent of its Committee of Creditors (CoC).
They had challenged in NCLAT, the order passed by the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which had on February 10, directed to place their settlement offer before the new Committee of Creditors (CoC), in which US-based Glas Trust, the trustee for lenders to which Byju’s owes $1.2 billion, is a member.
Filing the appeal in the top court, BCCI and Ravindran have sought a withdrawal of the insolvency proceedings saying they have entered into a settlement of Rs 158 crore, and this was done much before the constitution of CoC. Meanwhile, reacting to the Supreme Court’s order, Counsel of BYJU’S Founders said in a statement, “It is disappointing that the Hon’ble Supreme Court did not rule in favour of the termination of BYJU’s bankruptcy. The termination would have benefitted millions of students who are being deprived of BYJU’S learning system, and thousands of employees.”
“We are examining the implications of today’s order and will decide the future course of action after due consideration. BYJU’S Founders will not stop their efforts to terminate the company’s bankruptcy and remain confident that eventually justice will be found through the courts.” the statement added.