The Karnataka High Court directed the preservation of insolvency-related emails concerning Byju’s, following a plea by founder Byju Raveendran. The interim order aims to safeguard critical digital evidence amid ongoing legal proceedings.
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court ordered the preservation of email communications related to the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of edtech firm Think & Learn Pvt Ltd (Byju’s) amidst ongoing proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and a corresponding criminal investigation.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna issued the directive in response to a plea from Think & Learn founder Byju Raveendran, who sought measures to protect vital digital evidence.
The Court stated,
“The only prayer that can be granted, at this juncture, is directing the 5th respondent to preserve all the emails or conversations between the protagonists/stakeholders in the case at hand, subject to further orders that would be passed after hearing the parties,”
Byju’s entered the CIRP in July after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Bengaluru approved an insolvency petition filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) due to a default of Rs.158 crore. The NCLT appointed Pankaj Srivastava as the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP).
Subsequently, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) closed the insolvency proceedings and accepted a settlement between Byju’s and BCCI, noting that repayment would be personally funded by Riju Raveendran (Byju Raveendran’s brother) and not from funds owed to financial creditors.
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However, the Supreme Court set-aside this decision, instructing the NCLT to reconsider the matter. Srivastava was later replaced as RP for neglecting his duties.
Raveendran has accused Ernst and Young, Srivastava, and Glas Trust (a financial creditor) of engaging in a ‘criminal conspiracy’ against him, leading him to file a First Information Report (FIR) in Bengaluru.
In his current plea to the High Court, Raveendran asserted that during a Committee of Creditors (CoC) meeting on April 8, a decision was made to delete over 2,000 emails related to the ongoing criminal investigation and CIRP. He argued that this deletion would cause irreparable harm to the investigation, as both the police and Raveendran lack access to these sensitive emails.
He requested the Court to intervene and protect data linked to the company’s official CIRP email ID — ‘ip.byjus@outlook.com‘.
Among his various requests, Raveendran specifically sought the Court to:
- Direct the police to seize the CIRP email account and preserve all its data to prevent any further loss of emails, as discussed in the CoC meeting.
- Instruct the police to take legal action to recover deleted emails from the same account and preserve them for ongoing investigation.
- Order the production of the case diary in Crime No. 44/2025 to evaluate the investigation’s progress.
- Expedite the investigation into the said crime without proceeding to arrest the accused unless legally necessary.
- Grant interim reliefs to prevent the current Resolution Professional from appointing a third-party IT expert, as discussed in the CoC meeting, and to stay the execution of decisions made in that meeting pending the resolution of the present petition and related quashing petitions.
Advocate Shyammohan V, representing Raveendran, argued that nearly 2,400 emails were deleted during the tenure of the previous Resolution Professional, allegedly while “re-foldering.”
He emphasized that these communications are crucial evidence reflecting interactions among stakeholders and must be preserved to ensure a fair investigation.
The Court acknowledged that while many requests pertain to the merits of decisions made during the CIRP and the CoC meeting, those issues fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the NCLT and NCLAT.
The State, represented by Additional Government Advocate Rahul Cariappa, informed the Court that the investigation into Raveendran’s FIR is currently stayed by another bench of the High Court as of March 17.
Also Read: Byju Raveendran’s Appeals to HC for Stay on NCLT’s Insolvency Proceedings
Senior Advocate Udaya Holla, representing GLAS Trust, indicated that while he required time to file objections regarding other interim measures, he had no objection to the email preservation directive.
Given the stay on the FIR by the High Court, Justice Nagaprasanna deemed the requests concerning the case diary’s progress or production to be premature.
Consequently, the Court allowed only the request for the preservation of all emails and conversations related to the CIRP email account.
The case is scheduled for further hearing on April 21.
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