Agreed to list the petition related to bankruptcy proceedings against Byjus, know the case

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to list for early hearing the appeal of US-based creditor Glass Trust Company LLC against an order of the NCLAT. NCLAT had stayed the bankruptcy proceedings against ed-tech firm Byjus and approved the settlement of dues of Rs 158.9 crore with the BCCI.

Senior advocate NK Kaul, appearing for the ed-tech major, urged a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra that the matter needed to be heard at the earliest. "The funding was done only by the promoters and no one has taken any external borrowing today. We have to show today how malafide the petition (of the US firm) is," Kaul said.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the US-based creditor, said he also wanted an early hearing. Earlier on August 22, the bench had refused to pass an interim order to ensure that the committee of creditors (CoC) would not hold any meeting towards insolvency proceedings against the crisis-hit ed-tech firm. It had listed the plea for a final hearing on August 27.

The bench had said that the developments taking place in the meanwhile can be ignored if it finds that the appeal of the US-based creditor against the decision of the appellate bankruptcy tribunal NCLAT has no merit. The plea was earlier mentioned by Byjus and the BCCI on August 20 and the apex court had then too refused to pass an interim order restraining the insolvency resolution professional (IRP) from constituting a committee of creditors (CoC) in the insolvency proceedings against the ed-tech firm.

In a severe jolt to Byju's, the SC had on August 14 stayed the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal order that had nullified the insolvency proceedings against the embattled ed-tech major and allowed it to settle the Rs 158.9-crore dues with the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The August 2 order of NCLAT had come as a huge relief for Byjus as it effectively restored control to its founder, Byju Raveendran.

The apex court, however, termed the NCLAT decision as prima facie "unfair" and stayed its operations while issuing notice to Byjus and others on an appeal by the ed-tech firm's US-based creditor against the bankruptcy appellate tribunal's decision. The case was based on Byju's default in payment of Rs 158.9 crore related to a sponsorship deal with BCCI. The apex court had directed the BCCI to keep the amount of Rs 158 crore received from Byjus after settlement in a separate escrow account till further orders.