Bengaluru: National Company Law Appellate Tribunadismis appealed to Rizu Rabindran, brother of Bayju’s founder Buju Revendran and Cricket Body BCCI, to withdraw insufficient proceedings against the Edtech firm without the approval of the creditor.This decision strengthens the rights of the Committee of Creditors (COC).
The NCLAT retained the earlier decision by the Bangalore bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which refused to approve the out-of-court settlement between BCCI and Byju. The Appellate Tribunal stated that since the settling proposal came after the formation of COC, it could not proceed without the consent of 90% of the creditor group, in line with the sec 12A of insolvency and bankruptcy code.
The COC includes the Glas Trust, a US-based trustee, represents lenders, for whom Bayju owes $ 1.2 billion, and Aditya Birla Finance. Based on the claims recruited, the Glas Trust has a 99.4% polling in the committee.
The case arises from a sponsoring dispute related to BCCI, which filed a insolvency petition on unpaid dues of Rs 158.9 crore tied to the 2019 team sponsorship agreement last year.
However, the NCLAT briefly proceeded in August 2024 after an agreement was proposed that the verdict was overturned by SC in October after objections from the Glace Trust. The lender alleged that the amount given by Ravindran for disposal was suspicious and should be directed to comprehensive debt obligations.
Rabindran and BCCI argued that their return application was submitted before the formation of COC. However, the tribunal found that the official application for the FAA FA – was filed on November 14, 2024, by which the COC had already been formed. As a result, the application triggers compulsory creditor consent.
