NCLAT dismisses Byju's settlement plea, upholds insolvency

Chennai, April 18 (IANS) The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has set aside the appeals filed by the BCCI and Riju Raveendran, brother of Byju Raveendran, seeking withdrawal of insolvency proceedings against Byju's and to consider the settlement between the beleaguered edtech company and the BCCI.

They had challenged the order passed by the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which had on February 10, 2025 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.

The Chennai bench of the NCLAT upheld the directions passed by the NCLT. It said that the settlement proposal was filed after the formation of CoC, hence as the provisions of section 12 A of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, it requires the approval of the lender's body.

The Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against Byju's was initiated on July 16, 2024, by the NCLAT, admitting a Rs 158.90 crore claim from the BCCI as an operational creditor of edtech major. An IRP was appointed also by the NCLT in this matter.

Later, a settlement was reached between the parties, and Byju Raveendran approached the NCLAT.

The appellate tribunal set aside the insolvency proceedings against Byju's on August 2, 2024, after approving a dues settlement with the BCCI, which had entered into a Team Sponsor Agreement with the cricket body in 2019.

This was challenged by Glas Trust before the Supreme Court. Glas Trust, a financial creditor, had also filed a separate petition before NCLT seeking resolution of its debt of $984.3 million.

Meanwhile, Byju’s Alpha, a special purpose financing vehicle established by Byju’s in the US to receive proceeds of a $1.5 billion Term Loan B, last week sued Byju Raveendran, co-founder and his wife Divya Gokulnath for "orchestrating theft of $533 million".

Byju’s Alpha said that following the $533 million judgment of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware against Riju Ravindran and Byju’s ultimate corporate parent in India, the company has now filed a lawsuit against Byju Raveendran, his co-Founder and wife Divya Gokulnath, and his consigliere (advisor), Anita Kishore.

The lawsuit states that each of them co-orchestrated and executed a lawless scheme to conceal and steal $533 million of loan proceeds (the ‘Alpha Funds’), according to a press release.

They further stated that "it is clear that Byju, Divya, and Anita deliberately hid the assets of BYJU’s Alpha and repeatedly were deceptive about the location of the money in order to steal funds rightfully owed to the Lenders".

--IANS

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