The Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has levied a cost of ₹20,000 on edtech platform Byju’s for the delay in filing its reply to a petition by Surfer Technologies.
As an operational creditor, Surfer Technologies had on 7 February filed a section 9 application, initiating corporate insolvency resolution process against the troubled ed-tech firm. Following this, NCLT had asked Byju’s to file its reply.
Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, section 9 allows an operational creditor to initiate an insolvency process against a company due to a default.
“Response will be considered only if you deposit the cost,” said a bench led by Justices K Biswal and Manoj Kumar Dubey. The bench has posted the matter for further hearing on 1 May.
PSA Legal Counsellors appeared for Surfer Technologies, while Byju’s was represented by MZM Legal LLP.
Surfer Technologies had argued that Byju’s had incurred a debt of ₹2.3 crore and that it had sent a notice to the edtech company in this regard in December 2023.
Apart from Surfer, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Teleperformance Marketing have also separately approached the dedicated bankruptcy tribunal to recover their dues.
Last week, Byju’s requested the tribunal for a week to settle its dues with Teleperformance. The court will now hear the matter in the next week.
On 15 April, Byju’s had said the vote for an increase in authorized share capital put forth in the form of a postal ballot and the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held on 29 March, was being approved by a majority of 55% of the total votes polled. The voting process, which included both the EGM and a postal ballot that concluded on 6 April has been duly scrutinized by an independent third party.
“The approval of the EGM proposals paves the way for Think & Learn Private Limited, the parent company of Byju’s, to issue fresh shares and conclude the rights issue aimed at tackling the liquidity crunch, including unpaid salaries, regulatory dues and vendor payments,” the ed-tech firm had said in an official statement last week. “These delays were a result of irrational hostility from four foreign shareholders who chose frivolous litigation over constructive discussion.”