Byju Raveendran Challenges NCLT Order To Include Glas Trust, Aditya Birla Finance In CoC

SUMMARY

Byju Raveendran has challenged the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT’s) order to include its creditors Glas Trust and Aditya Birla Finance to the committee of creditors (CoC)

BYJU's founder filed a petition with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), in which he called the admission of the creditors to the CoC as “fundamentally flawed”

Raveendran’s counsel argued that the NCLT admitted the CoC constituted by Srivastava on August 21 despite finding lapses in his conduct

Adding another layer to the BYJU’S court room saga, the edtech startup’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran has now reportedly challenged the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT’s) order to include its creditors Glas Trust and Aditya Birla Finance to the committee of creditors (CoC).

According to a report by ET, the founder filed a petition with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), in which he called the admission of the creditors to the CoC as well as reconstitution of the committee to set up the ex- insolvency resolution professional (IRP) Pankaj Srivastava as “fundamentally flawed”

Raveendran’s counsel argued that the NCLT admitted the CoC constituted by Srivastava on August 21 despite finding lapses in his conduct.

“Some kind of line is drawn by the adjudicating authority, as if to say that whatever he did on August 21 is accepted but everything else is disregarded,” Raveendran’s lawyer S Guru Krishna Kumar argued during the NCLAT hearing today.

It is pertinent to note that in January this year the NCLT had directed to remove Srivastava as the IRP and directed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) to take disciplinary action against Srivastava. Later Shailendra Ajmera replaced Srivastava as the new RP.

During today’s NCLAT hearing, Raveendran also objected to the appointment of Ajmera as the new RP.

Earlier this month, he also urged the NCLT to conduct a thorough investigation into the alleged fraud by Glas Trust, consultancy firm EY and Srivastava.

Last week, ex-IRP Srivastava had also alleged law firm Khaitan & Co of strong-arming him to appoint EY as process advisor for investigation into the edtech firm.

Further, Srivasatava said that the law firm had threatened him of “personal consequences” had he appointed anyone other than EY as the process advisor in the case against BYJU’S as it would have been “counterproductive to the interests of GLAS Trust.”

The development comes as troubles continue to surround the once decacorn from all angles. In a major blow to the startup last month, a US bankruptcy court ruled in favour of the creditors in connection with the fraudulent transfer of $533 Mn out of the $1.2 Bn term loan B.