Supreme Court dismisses Byju’s settlement plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed pleas filed by the BCCI and Riju Raveendran — brother of Byju Raveendran — seeking withdrawal of insolvency proceedings against Byju’s and to consider the settlement between the beleaguered edtech company and the BCCI.

A Bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadeven refused to interfere with the April 17 order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) which had ruled that since the settlement proposal was filed after the formation of Committee of Creditors (CoC), it required the approval of the lender’s body under the provisions of section 12 A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

Earlier in February 2025, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had directed the petitioners to place their settlement offer before the new CoC, in which US-based Glas Trust, the trustee for lenders to which Byju’s owes $1.2 billion, is a member. The Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against Byju’s was initiated in July last year by the NCLAT, admitting a Rs 158.90 crore claim from the BCCI as an operational creditor of edtech major.

An Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) was also appointed in this matter. Later, a settlement was reached between the parties, and Byju Raveendran approached the NCLAT. The appellate tribunal set aside the insolvency proceedings against Byju’s on August 2, 2024, after approving a dues settlement with the BCCI, which had entered into a Team Sponsor Agreement with the cricket body in 2019. This was challenged by Glas Trust before the Supreme Court.

A Bench headed by then Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud halted the NCLAT order and directed the BCCI to deposit the amount in question in a separate escrow account till further orders.

Meanwhile, Byju’s Alpha, a special purpose financing vehicle established by Byju’s in the US to receive proceeds of a $1.5 billion Term Loan B, has sued Byju Raveendran, co-founder and his wife Divya Gokulnath for “orchestrating theft of $533 million”. Byju’s Alpha said that following the $533 million judgment of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware against Riju Ravindran and Byju’s ultimate corporate parent in India, the company has now filed a lawsuit against Byju Raveendran, his co-founder and wife Divya Gokulnath, and his consigliere (advisor), Anita Kishore.

The lawsuit states that each of them co-orchestrated and executed a lawless scheme to conceal and steal $533 million of loan proceeds (the ‘Alpha Funds’), according to a press release. They further stated that “it is clear that Byju, Divya, and Anita deliberately hid the assets of Byju’s Alpha and repeatedly were deceptive about the location of the money in order to steal funds rightfully owed to the Lenders”.

IANS