In a major blow to Byju’s (and the Board of Control for Cricket in India moneywise), the Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a settlement reached between the one time edtech giant and the BCCI, effectively reviving insolvency proceedings against the embattled company.
The decision overturned an August 2 ruling by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which had closed insolvency proceedings against Byju’s (officially known as Think and Learn Pvt Ltd) after it reached a Rs 158 crore settlement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, directed that all parties and creditors could approach the Committee of Creditors (CoC) to pursue remedies available to them under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), adding that the Rs 158 crore Byju’s paid to BCCI as part of the earlier settlement be transferred to an escrow account under CoC’s control, pending further review of the case.
Rejecting Byju’s objections to the locus (legal standing) of Glas Trust, which loaned Byju’s approximately $1.2 billion, the top court noted that Glas Trust was not an unrelated party to the dispute, especially since it has reasonable apprehensions regarding round-tripping of the funds that were used in paying BCCI and charges of preferable payments to the cricketing body.
Glas Trust had approached the Supreme Court objecting to the payment settlement between BCCI and Byju’s, claiming that the ₹158 crore was “tainted” and was misappropriated from it.
