The Bangalore bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has reportedly listed the hearing between Byju’s and the BCCI on March 20.

Last year, the cricket board dragged Think & Learn Pvt Ltd, Byju’s parent, to the NCLT claiming Rs 158 crore over a dispute related to the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team’s jersey.

A CNBC-TV18 report on Wednesday said that while the matter has been listed for March 20, the tribunal may pronounce an order on the insolvency petition after the parties finish their arguments.

Recently, a group of four investors of the start-up had filed an oppression and mismanagement suit against the management before the Bangalore bench of the NCLT.

The investors want the founders, including CEO Byju Raveendran, to be declared as unfit to run the company and appoint a new board.

Once India’s most valued start-up, Byju’s was the target of chartered accountants’ apex body ICAI, which found “gross negligence on the part of the auditors”.

“Our inspection has found gross negligence on accounting practices by individual auditors of Byju’s and accordingly we have recommended to the Financial Reporting Review Board (FRRB) to take punitive actions on auditors concerned,” a PTI report quoted Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal, the president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

For long the international auditing major Deloitte was the statutory auditors of Byju’s.
However, as the financial trouble mounted at the edutech major, it in June 2023 resigned midway, citing a long delay in the preparation of the financial statement of the company for 2021-22.

Following the resignation of Deloitte, Byju’s appointed another global firm BDO as its new auditors. BDO’s audit arm is MSKA & Associates.

The FRRB is a non-standing committee of the council of the ICAI and was constituted in July 2002.

The FRRB may determine whether any scrutiny of the books is necessary over allegations of regulatory lapses and their impact on the payment bank’s accounting, Agarwal said, adding that it is the discretion of the board whom to review and when to do so.