BYJU’S Insolvency: NCLAT Quashes Plea To Block CoC From Reviewing BCCI Application

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) reportedly refused to grant interim relief to BYJU’S suspended director Riju Ravindran, who sought to block the edtech company’s committee of creditors (CoC) from reviewing the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) application to settle its insolvency dispute with the company.

Ravindran moved the NCLAT after the NCLT directed the BCCI last week to submit its settlement application to the bankrupt company’s new CoC, ET reported.

The report said that Ravindran, brother of BYJU’S founder Byju Raveendran, argued that the settlement occurred before the new CoC was formed. However, the NCLAT’s Chennai bench ruled that since the withdrawal request is viewed as post-CoC by the NCLT, it must be reviewed by the creditors.

The BCCI filed an insolvency plea against BYJU’S last year to recover INR 158 Cr owed to it. This plea led to the beginning of insolvency proceedings against the company, which was once valued at $22 Bn. However, the two parties reached a settlement in August last year.

The latest development is just another event in BYJU’S long insolvency saga. Recently, the NCLAT also disposed of an appeal filed by Ravindran challenging the reinstatement of the edtech’s lenders Glas Trust and Aditya Birla Finance to BYJU’S CoC. 

Last month, the NCLT ordered disciplinary action against Pankaj Srivastava, the then insolvency resolution professional (IRP) of BYJU’S, saying his conduct during the proceedings was unfit and improper for an officer of the Tribunal. The NCLT also overturned his decision to remove Glas Trust and Aditya Birla Finance from the committee of creditors (CoC).

It also ordered the creation of a new CoC and gave this new group the responsibility of deciding whether to appoint a new resolution professional. Earlier this week, the new CoC passed a resolution to replace Srivastava with Shailendra Ajmera.