Byju’s employees hire law firms to claim dues
The next hearing for Byju’s is scheduled for 29 July at Chennai bench of NCLAT
Current and former employees of Byju’s, once India’s most valued startup, are racing against time to claim unpaid salaries and other dues after the edtech company was admitted to insolvency earlier this month.
With a deadline of 31 July for filing claims related to unpaid dues from the online tutor, these employees have appointed lawyers and law firms to recover their salaries and benefits.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) earlier this month appointed insolvency resolution professional Pankaj Srivastava to oversee the company’s daily affairs after admitting a bankruptcy petition against Byju’s by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Efforts by the edtech company’s founder and chief executive, Byju Raveendran, to overturn the insolvency order through appeals to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and the Karnataka High Court have been unsuccessful. The next hearing is scheduled for 29 July at the Chennai bench of NCLAT.
Over 800 Byju’s employees have formed a WhatsApp group to find ways to recover their compensation from the edtech company. About 60 from this group are in the final stage of filing claims with the help of Bengaluru-based law firm Canvas Legal.
Led by Rajat Singh, a former Byju’s tutor, they had filed a demand notice with NCLT on 4 July. However, the case was put on hold along with other pending lawsuits before Byju’s was admitted to insolvency.
“Some people have already submitted the required documents to the lawyers, and others will submit everything in a day or two,” Singh told Mint. “We paid the fees the same way as before. This time too, we hired for a group instead of individually, so the fee was distributed per head.”
Canvas Legal said it was in the process of filing the claims and declined to comment further.
Another group of 20 employees has also begun filing their claims with assistance from Delhi-based law firm SSA Lawgistics. “The claims that we have filed so far range anywhere between ₹55,000 and about ₹28,00,000,” Simranjeet Singh, proprietor of SSA Lawgistics, said.
According to Simranjeet Singh, employees can recover unpaid dues only by filing claims with the insolvency professional. “I have been getting many calls and emails with queries on this separately as the deadline is inching very close now,” he added.
Byju’s management, meanwhile, has urged its current employees to wait another month before filing claims stating that the founding team was working hard to save the company, people aware of the matter told Mint.
Byju’s did not immediately respond to Mint’s request for a comment.
Durgesh Khanapurkar, partner at law firm Desai & Diwanji, said Byju’s employees can either file their claim individually or as a group making a consolidated claim through an authorized representative, setting out the claims of each employee.