The High Court of Singapore has rejected a plea by Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran to suspend a six-month jail sentence for contempt, dealing another legal setback to the embattled edtech entrepreneur and effectively preventing him from returning to the city-state unless he is prepared to serve the prison term.
According to reports, the Singapore High Court has dismissed Raveendran’s application to stay the sentence.
The jail term was originally imposed in May for contempt of court, with a temporary stay granted last month pending his appeal.
With the latest ruling, Raveendran will be unable to enter Singapore without facing the six-month sentence unless he secures further legal relief.
Responding to the decision, J. Michael McNutt, a lawyer at Lazareff Le Bars representing Raveendran, said his client continues to deny violating any court order.
“Raveendran maintains that he did not breach any court order, intentionally or otherwise, and will continue to pursue every lawful remedy through the proper legal process,” McNutt said in a statement.
The ruling marks the latest setback for Raveendran. Earlier in May, a Singapore court had sentenced Raveendran to six months in jail for allegedly failing to comply with multiple court orders related to disclosure of his assets.
The court had also directed him to surrender to authorities, pay legal costs of S$90,000 and furnish documents establishing his ownership of Beeaar Investco Pte, a corporate entity that held shares in a related company.
The legal proceedings in Singapore were initiated by a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, which had invested in Byju’s during a period when the company was undergoing restructuring and large-scale layoffs.
Qatar Holdings was represented by law firm Drew & Napier, while Byju’s Investments was represented by Fervent Chambers.
The Singapore case is one of several legal battles involving Raveendran across jurisdictions. In the US, creditors have been pursuing claims linked to a defaulted $1.2 billion term loan, while investors have raised concerns over the company’s financial management and governance.
However, Raveendran had secured some relief in December 2025 when the Delaware Court reversed its earlier $1 billion judgment against him after considering fresh submissions.
The court held that damages had not been properly determined and ordered a fresh phase of proceedings to assess whether any compensation was payable.
Raveendran’s legal team has alleged that GLAS Trust and certain lenders withheld or misrepresented key information during the US proceedings, claims they say contributed to the collapse of the edtech company and destruction of its enterprise value.
