NEW DELHI: Supreme Court in virtually an ex parte order on Wednesday stayed National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s Aug 3 order approving payment of 158.9 crore by Riju Raveendran on behalf of Byju’s to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and setting aside the BCCI-initiated insolvency proceedings against the edtech major.
Brushing aside repeated pleas by solicitor general Tushar Mehta for an opportunity to argue on behalf of BCCI before the SC stayed the NCLAT order, a bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked BCCI to deposit the money it received (158.9 crore) in a separate escrow account.
For Byju Raveendra, who filed a caveat to stall US-based creditor Glas Trust Company LLC from getting an ex-parte order from the SC, senior advocate A M Singhvi too made repeated unsuccessful attempts to put across arguments against stay of the NCLAT order without hearing the opposite side.
When SG argued that this was the first time, he had to say in CJI’s court that a stay order is being passed without hearing the opposite side, the bench said, “the (NCLAT) order is unconscionable.”
Appearing for the US-based creditor, senior advocate Shyam Divan questioned how the money could be paid to BCCI by the two brothers, who have gone out of the country and there are look out notices pending against them. “There are at least 3,000 claims against Byju and NCLAT went wrong in agreeing for payments to BCCI,” he said.
BCCI had approached NCLT under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) over a default of 158.9 crore by Think & Learn. On July 16, the NCLT Bengaluru bench had directed initiation of corporate insolvency proceedings against Byju’s. which was once valued at $22 billion but post-covid its net worth nosedived to $ one billion.
Divan said the Byju brothers were in contempt of US district court at Delaware on non-payment to US creditors.
Brushing aside repeated pleas by solicitor general Tushar Mehta for an opportunity to argue on behalf of BCCI before the SC stayed the NCLAT order, a bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked BCCI to deposit the money it received (158.9 crore) in a separate escrow account.
For Byju Raveendra, who filed a caveat to stall US-based creditor Glas Trust Company LLC from getting an ex-parte order from the SC, senior advocate A M Singhvi too made repeated unsuccessful attempts to put across arguments against stay of the NCLAT order without hearing the opposite side.
When SG argued that this was the first time, he had to say in CJI’s court that a stay order is being passed without hearing the opposite side, the bench said, “the (NCLAT) order is unconscionable.”
Appearing for the US-based creditor, senior advocate Shyam Divan questioned how the money could be paid to BCCI by the two brothers, who have gone out of the country and there are look out notices pending against them. “There are at least 3,000 claims against Byju and NCLAT went wrong in agreeing for payments to BCCI,” he said.
BCCI had approached NCLT under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) over a default of 158.9 crore by Think & Learn. On July 16, the NCLT Bengaluru bench had directed initiation of corporate insolvency proceedings against Byju’s. which was once valued at $22 billion but post-covid its net worth nosedived to $ one billion.
Divan said the Byju brothers were in contempt of US district court at Delaware on non-payment to US creditors.