A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said there were procedural lapses in the settlement process, which happened without the approval of insolvency resolution professional Pankaj Srivastava who was appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on July 16 to manage the company’s affairs.
“We allow the present appeal and set aside the impugned judgement of the NCLAT dated to August 2024,” CJI Chandrachud said, allowing an appeal filed against the NCLAT order by a group of Byju’s US lenders.
Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran’s brother and the company’s largest shareholder, Riju Ravindran, had paid Rs 158 crore to settle the payment over a sponsorship deal with the BCCI, which had filed a bankruptcy petition against the edtech firm in the NCLT. The US lenders, represented by Glas Trust Co, had opposed the settlement agreement and are seeking their money back.
The top court directed the cricket body to deposit the settlement amount along with any accrued interest with the committee of creditors of Byju’s parent company, Think and Learn.
“The committee of creditors is directed to maintain this amount in an escrow account until further developments, and to abide by the further directions of the NCLT,” the court said.
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On October 17, Byju Raveendran said that the decision to settle with the BCCI first was because the cricket body was the largest creditor. Raveendran had added that the $1.2 billion term loan secured from US lenders was used for both organic and inorganic international growth, including several smaller global acquisitions.
Content Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com