Earlier, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had directed the NCLT to decide within a week on the BCCI’s application to withdraw the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) plea against Byju’s.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) directed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to submit its application for settling the dispute with Byju’s and withdrawing the insolvency plea against Think & Learn Private Limited before the company’s Committee of Creditors (CoC).
The decision was made by a bench of Judicial Member K Biswal and Technical Member Ravichandran Ramaswamy.
The NCLT stated, “The application is disposed of with the direction to submit withdrawal application before CoC.”
With this order, the Committee of Creditors (CoC) will now decide whether the insolvency plea can be withdrawn.
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Srinivasa Raghavan argued that the Resolution Professional (RP), Pankaj Srivastava, was not conducting himself properly. Raghavan informed the tribunal that the RP had not yet scheduled a meeting with the newly formed CoC, despite being directed to do so by the NCLT. It was alleged that the RP had been delaying the meeting without any valid reason.
On the other hand, Senior Advocate Promod Nair, representing Aditya Birla Finance, requested the NCLT to examine this issue and take action accordingly.
The tribunal responded by instructing all parties to file an appropriate application bringing these concerns on record.
Background
Earlier, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had directed the NCLT to decide within a week on the BCCI’s application to withdraw the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) plea against Byju’s.
This order from the NCLAT was part of a case filed by Riju Raveendran, a suspended director of Byju’s. Raveendran had challenged the NCLT’s decision to reinstate Glas Trust and Aditya Birla Finance into the Byju’s CoC.
Riju Raveendran argued that the NCLT should not have reconstituted the CoC while an application for withdrawal of the CIRP was still pending. He stated that Byju’s had already reached a full settlement with BCCI before the CoC was formed. Therefore, he believed that deciding on the withdrawal application was more urgent than forming the CoC.
According to Raveendran, the NCLT’s decision to prioritize the CoC formation indirectly dismissed the withdrawal application without actually ruling on it.
His plea also pointed out that the Supreme Court had granted BCCI and Riju Raveendran the freedom to take appropriate legal action after their settlement. He contended that the NCLT’s move to form the CoC before addressing the withdrawal plea went against the Supreme Court’s instructions.
His legal argument was that if the withdrawal application was approved, there would be no need for the CoC’s reconstitution in the first place. On July 16, 2023, The NCLT Bengaluru admitted an insolvency plea against Think & Learn Private Limited, the parent company of Byju’s. The case was filed by BCCI over unpaid dues related to sponsorship rights worth Rs.158 crore.
