The Karnataka High Court on May 28 extended interim relief to edtech platform Byju's. The court asked shareholders to abstain from implementing the resolutions that were expected to be passed in the extraordinary general meeting that was held on February 28. With this move, Founder & CEO of Byju's, Byju Raveendran, is safeguarded from being removed from the company.
At the extraordinary general meeting held on February 23, a group of investors, including Prosus, General Atlantic, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Peak XV, voted for the removal of Byju Raveendran. Now, Raveendran will continue to hold his position until June 24, which is the next date of the hearing. As of now, the court has already granted extensions in the case three times.
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Other resolutions of the meeting included the removal of Riju Raveendran, the brother of the company founder, Byju Raveendran, and the director of Byju's Divya Gokulnath. While insisting on a change of leadership for the company, the investors also asked for the reconstitution of the Board of Directors.
Under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, on February 21, Byju's filed a petition and asked the court to restrain the shareholders of the company from holding the EGM. The High Court refused to stay the EGM. However, it also asked investors not to give any effect to the resolutions passed until March 13.
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Meanwhile, recently, the National Company Law Tribunal issued notices to the edtech firm in three cases for unpaid dues. Several other companies, including Teleperformance and Surfer Technologies, had also filed an insolvency plea against Byju’s. However, now, as per a report by Moneycontrol, the edtech firm is looking for an out-of-settlement option with the two creditors, Teleperformance and Surfer Technologies. At the Bengaluru bench of the NCLT, seven petitions are pending against Byju’s.