The Bengaluru bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has asked embattled edtech major Byju’s to respond to insolvency petitions filed by US lenders and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The NCLT bench has given Think & Learn, Byju’s parent company, three weeks to file its objections to the insolvency petition filed by Glas Trust Company LLC, the administrative agent appointed by the TLB lenders to its US subsidiary Alpha Inc.
It has also asked the Glas Trust Company LLC to issue a notice to Byju’s for payment defaults of the loan that it had guaranteed along with a copy of the petition it filed in the bankruptcy court.
The TLB lenders, which has extended nearly 85 per cent of loan, invoked the guarantee provided by Think & Learn.
While, in a separate hearing, the BCCI lawyer told the NCLT that Byju’s has not yet paid pending due of ₹156 crore. The BCCI lawyer argued that Byju’s had already withheld tax deducted at source (TDS) against invoices that it received from BCCI, but it never paid the invoice amount to the cricket board.
Other matters
This comes at a time when the Bengaluru Bench of NCLT on Tuesday reserved judgement on interim orders in the oppression and mismanagement plea filed by four investors against Byju’s. The investors sought for a stay of the $200-million rights issue, which closes on February 29.
The saga so far
The embattled edtech is facing troubles from all front. The recently-concluded extraordinary general meeting (EGM) by the investors of Think & Learn (T&L), the parent company of Byju’s, voted on and passed several resolutions at the EGM, including the removal of CEO Byju Raveendran from the company and the change of the board, which currently includes his wife and co-founder Divya Gokulnath and his brother Riju Raveendran.
The EGM, which Raveendran, his wife, and brother — the only board members — decided not to attend, faced several disruptions, reported businessline. However, Byju’s has termed the resolutions as invalid and ineffective.