India’s top court has put on hold a tribunal ruling that halted Byju’s insolvency proceedings in a win for U.S. creditors that are seeking $1 billion from the edtech startup.
The Indian Supreme Court ordered on Wednesday a stay on the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s recent approval of a settlement between the Indian cricket board BCCI and Byju’s. The stay on the order means that the insolvency proceedings will now resume.
The Wednesday ruling is the latest crisis for Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup at $22 billion valuation.
The startup’s troubles began after the Indian tribunal court last month initiated insolvency proceedings for Byju’s after the firm failed to pay over $19 million it owed to the powerful cricket board.
Byju’s averted this when the CEO’s brother, Riju Raveendran, agreed to pay. An appeals tribunal then dismissed the insolvency case, a decision now put on hold by the Supreme Court’s ruling.
U.S.-based Glas Trust, which represents some U.S. lenders of a Byju’s group company, had opposed the halt on the insolvency process. They argued that Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran’s brother tapped the lender’s capital to pay the BCCI.
Byju’s had no immediate comment Wednesday.
