.jpeg)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's (NCLAT) order which closed the insolvency proceedings against edtech giant Byju's for accepting a Rs 158.9 crore dues settlement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
A three-bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud directed that the settlement amount maintained in a separate escrow account pursuant to the stay of the NCLAT order, will have to be deposited into the escrow account of the Committee of Creditors (CoC).
The bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, delivered its verdict on a plea by the US-based creditor Glas Trust Company LLC, which challenged the NCLAT's earlier verdict.
"The NCLAT cannot be considered a post-office which will stamp such withdrawal applications being moved by the IRP... There was no formal application made for withdrawal, the first respondent who was a former director of corp debtor, had moved NCLAT directly," it said.
"Despite these grave deviations, the NCLAT still approved the settlement... Exercise of inherent powers cannot be done to subjugate the legal process and the NCLAT should have stayed the composition of CoC instead. Thus, we allow the appeal and set aside the NCLAT judgement."
