Update: July 18 2024
BYJU’S is set to appeal against the insolvency plea of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) admitted by the Bengaluru bench of NCLT over alleged unpaid dues worth 158.9 crore.
In the order dated July 16, the division bench of judicial member K Biswal and technical member Manoj Kumar Dubey confirmed the presence of debt and default in its payment.
NCLT has made Pankaj Srivastava the interim resolution professional to run the company’s operations until a Committee of Creditors (COC) is established, for which he has been instructed to issue a public notice to invite claims from the company’s creditors.
The BCCI had moved to NCLT in September 2023 under section 9 of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 over the Indian cricket team’s jersey sponsorship, seeking insolvency against the ed-tech company.
The sponsorship had begun in 2019 and was supposed to go on till March 2022. BYJU’S sought an extension of the sponsorship but exited in December 2022 on the grounds of financial challenges. The Bengaluru-based ed-tech platform claimed that it availed no sponsorship rights once the contract terminated which was dismissed by the NCLT citing email exchanges which indicated that the ed-tech availed the benefits till September 15 2023.
For the latest, BYJU’S may try to get a stay on NCLT order and initiate settlement outside the court with the BCCI.
July 16 2024
The insolvency case against ed-tech giant BYJU’S by the Gurugram-based IT services company Surfer Technologies has reached a settlement.
The IT firm informed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on last Wednesday regarding the settlement and further that it would withdraw the insolvency application against the ed-tech platform as reported by Livemint.
On Monday, NCLT asked both parties to file a formal application for the same as the order regarding the case had been held by the tribunal.
Surfer Technologies had filed the case under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 in February 2024, stating that BYJU’S owed it Rs 2.3 Cr for the IT and customer care services it provided to the ed-tech firm. “We were the digital marketing vendors. We would send them leads and only after they confirm a lead, we would raise an invoice. They remained unpaid to date,” the IT firm argued.
Subsequently, in the same month, NCLT issued a notice to BYJU’S to get the firm’s response but then the ed-tech major was fined Rs 20,000 for the delay in response to the petition.
Before this latest settlement move, BYJU’S had informed NCLT about another settlement it had reached last month with France-based Teleperformance Business Services in another insolvency case with dues worth Rs 5 crore.
Additionally, BYJU’S still has other insolvency petitions and other legal proceedings to deal with, the one filed by investors General Atlantic and MIH Edtech over alleged oppression and mismanagement being in highlights.
This settlement comes as a relief amidst multiple legal cases, mass layoffs, widening losses, delayed financial statements, and debt crisis among others that the Bengaluru-based ed-tech firm has lately been faced with.
