BYJU’S Insolvency Case: SC Agrees To Early Hearing Of Glas Trust’s Plea

The Supreme Court has reportedly agreed to an early hearing of Glas Trust Company LLC’s plea against the NCLAT’s decision to stay insolvency proceedings against the embattled edtech giant BYJU’S and approve its INR 158.9 Cr settlement with the BCCI.

As per a PTI report, a bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, was urged by senior advocate NK Kaul to expedite the hearing of BYJU’S case. 

Kaul said, “The only funding has been provided by the promoters, and there has been no external borrowing. We need to demonstrate how malicious the US firm’s petition is.” The CJI, who had been indisposed and in quarantine recently, responded, “I will have the case listed as soon as possible.”

It is pertinent to note that the Supreme Court last month overturned the NCLAT’s ruling that quashed the bankruptcy proceedings against BYJU’S and approved an INR 158.9 Cr settlement between the debt-ridden edtech firm and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). 

This comes days after the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) postponed its verdict on Glas Trust’s petition seeking a stay on further meetings of the committee of creditors (CoC). 

Glas Trust, a consortium of US-based lenders that extended a $1.2 Bn term loan B to BYJU’S parent company Think & Learn Pvt Ltd in 2021, was reportedly ousted from the creditors’ committee within minutes of its first meeting on September 3.

On August 22, the SC refused to issue an interim order to halt meetings of the committee of creditors (CoC) related to BYJU’S insolvency proceedings, scheduling a final hearing for August 27. Earlier, on August 14, the court had stayed the NCLAT verdict that had halted insolvency proceedings and approved BYJU’S INR 158.9 Cr settlement with the BCCI, calling the NCLAT’s decision “unconscionable.”

The case stemmed from BYJU’S default on an INR 158.9 Cr payment related to a sponsorship deal with the BCCI. The court directed the BCCI to keep the settlement amount in escrow until further orders.

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