No immediate relief for Byju Raveendran as Karnataka HC defers plea to July 30

No immediate relief for Byju's from Karnataka HC

The Karnataka High Court has deferred to July 30 Byju Raveendran's plea to suspend the order that admitted Think and Learn Private Limited (TLPL), which operates his ed-tech startup Byju’s, into the insolvency resolution process, alleging bias.

As the Chennai bench of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) was expected to hear the plea on July 29, it would take a call the next day, the court said on July 26.

"I will keep in mind that you (Raveendran) have come to the court the third time in a short span," Justice Krishna Kumar said to the Byju’s founder.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) started bankruptcy proceedings against Think and Learn on July 16 on a Board of Control for Cricket in India's plea over non-payment of Rs 158 crore.

Appearing for Raveendran, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi urged the court to pass the order the same day and also sought a stay on the setting up of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) awaiting the NCLAT order.

Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, who appeared for BCCI, opposed the plea. "He is deliberately misleading the court," Mehta said, contending that the CoC was unlikely to be formed by July 31. Raveendran's plea was filed on mere speculation and no concrete orders, he said.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the US-based lenders of the embattled edtech firm, said Raveendran's plea should only be heard by NCLAT and not the high court since it was not contemplated in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016.

"The NCLAT bench has adjourned my appeal to another date to decide on whether one of the judges will have to recuse from the plea. If the Committee of Creditors is formed meanwhile, I will be left remediless, it will become irreversible," Singhvi said.

He said if NCLAT adjourned the plea again, CoC could take over Byju’s without its plea being heard. "This is like giving a pound of flesh to Shylock," he said.

This is the second plea Raveendran has moved in the Karnataka High Court against the NCLT's insolvency order. While his earlier plea challenges the validity of the order, the second petition seeks suspension of the order till the NCLAT hears his appeal.