NCLT issues notice on Surfer Technologies’ plea to initiate insolvency proceedings against Byju's

NCLT issues notice on Surfer Technologies’ plea to initiate insolvency proceedings against Byju's

The matter will be heard on 05 March

The Bengaluru bench of the National Law Company Tribunal (NCLT) has issued a notice on a petition filed by the digital marketing vendor Surfer Technologies seeking the initiation of insolvency proceedings against Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, parent company of education-technology startup, Byju's.

A special bench of retired Justice T Krishnavalli (Judicial Member) and Manoj Kumar Dubey (Technical Member) granted one week to Byju's to submit its response.

Surfer Technologies had approached the NCLT through PSA Legal to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against Byju's under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)

Representing Surfer Technologies, advocate Dhruv Suri argued that Byju's had incurred a debt of Rs.2.3 crores and issued a notice to the company on the matter on 08 December 2023, before approaching the tribunal.

Advocate Suri stated, "We are the digital marketing vendors. We would send them leads and only after their confirmation, the invoices were raised. However, the payment remains unpaid, which continues to be debt.”

The petition by Surfer Technologies was the third. The first was filed by a group of international lenders, pending scrutiny before the registry of the tribunal.

The other was filed by Byju’s operational creditor Teleperformance Business Services Ltd, the Indian unit of a French multinational company. It was filed through King Stubb & Kasiva from New Delhi in November last. Both petitions are yet to be heard.