Byju’s dragged to court by BCCI over sponsorship termination

29 Nov 2023 , 01:16 PM

The Indian cricket administration Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has taken Edtech giant Byju’s to court, most likely for the termination of the former’s title sponsorship rights.

The case has been filed with the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) Bengaluru bench. The next hearing on the matter has been scheduled for December 22 by Justices K Biswal and Manoj Dubey.

Ann Pereira, an associate at Argus Partners, filed the case on behalf of BCCI in September. This is one of several recent legal setbacks for the Bengaluru-based edtech business.

In November 2022, the BCCI received an email from Byju’s requesting that an association be terminated following the just ended T20 World Cup. This went against BCCI’s wishes, which were to extend the agreement until at least March 31, 2023.

Last week, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that it had issued show cause letters to edtech business Byju’s parent company, Think & Learn, and its CEO, Byju Raveendran, for suspected breaches of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) worth Rs 9,362.35 crore.

Earlier this month, the embattled edtech firm released its delayed audited financial statements for the fiscal year ending March 2022 – in parts – indicating a 2.3 times increase in sales to Rs 3,569 crore in its primary business.