IBBI Disciplinary Committee Holds Resolution Professional Unauthorisedly Reconstited CoC & Filed Misleading Affidavits in Byju’s Parent Company CIRP [Read Order]

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India’s Disciplinary Committee (DC) has found that resolution professional acted without authority by reconstituting of committee of creditors (CoC) during the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of Byju’s parent company, Think and Learn Private Limited and also found that he filed misleading affidavits before the adjudicating authority.

The matter arose from the CIRP initiated by the NCLT, Bengaluru Bench, on 16 July 2024, in an application filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Pankaj Srivastava was appointed as Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) and later confirmed as Resolution Professional (RP).

The DC noted that Insolvency Professional, Pankaj Srivastav, initially constituted a Committee of Creditors (CoC) on 21 August 2024, admitting claims of Glas Trust Company LLC, Aditya Birla Finance Limited (ABFL), and others. However, within days, he reconstituted the CoC, removing Glas Trust and reclassifying ABFL as an operational creditor—without the AA's approval or prior communication to the affected creditors.

The Adjudicating Authority (AA), in its order dated 29 January 2025, observed that Srivastava had filed two different applications, both claiming the constitution of the CoC on the same date, but with entirely different compositions. The tribunal held that this amounted to misinformation and concealment of material facts, in violation of his duties as an officer of the court.

The DC also found that he engaged EY Restructuring LLP for claim verification, failed to exercise due diligence, and swore affidavits that contradicted each other. So his actions violated Sections 21(1) and 208(2) of the Code, as well as Regulations 13, 14, and 17 of the CIRP Regulations, and clauses of the Code of Conduct under the IP Regulations.

On the other hand, Pankaj Srivastava submitted that Glas Trust’s claim was provisional because the supporting documents were incomplete, unsigned, or not properly notarized/apostilled. He also maintained that he did not remove Glas Trust from the list of creditors but kept its claim in abeyance pending further substantiation.

He explained that IAs was filed based on preliminary verification of claims, and later to incorporate additional information received from suspended directors and insisted that there was no intent to conceal or mislead; the second IA was meant to update the CoC composition under Regulation 14(2) of the CIRP Regulations.

After taking all of these findings into consideration, DC found that Pankaj Srivastava acted beyond his authority by unilaterally re-constituting the Committee of Creditors and has filed contradictory affidavits with the AA, without disclosing the initial filing, thereby misleading the AA.

It was also noted that Pankaj Srivastava has violated Section 12A of the Code by filing a withdrawal application without the mandatory 90% CoC approval or presenting the request to the Committee of Creditors.

Accordingly, Whole Time Members Dr. Bhushan Kumar Sinha and Jayanti Prasad has ordered that the registration of insolvency professional be suspended for 3 years exercising its powers under section 220 of the IBC and Regulation 13 of the IBBI (Inspection and Investigation) Regulations, 2017.

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