Reportedly, a Siliguri-based hotelier has challenged the order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
Awaiting Supreme Court’s Decision
Two months ago, this order gave a clean chit to the hospitality firm Oyo against an insolvency proceeding, in the Supreme Court.
Further the hearing is scheduled for September 13 before a two-judge bench having Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice JK Maheshwari.
The advocate of the hotelier, Ramchandra Madan said, “The appeal is challenging the order of the NCLAT whereby it had permitted the withdrawal of the corporate insolvency resolution that had been initiated against Oyo Hotel,”.
In response, the court may issue a notice staying the order of the NCLAT or it may completely dismiss the appeal out rightly.
If later happens then the hotelier will be out of court.
However, if the court issues a notice, it will mean that the question of insolvency is still not off the table.
Settlement In Process
Even if NCLAT had disallowed the intervention of hotel owners who had filed claims against the hospitality firm in July, still it reserved their rights to approach Oyo for an out-of-the-court settlement.
The director of Siliguri’s Central Courtyard Resort, Mona Agarwalla, said that she was in touch with Oyo.
Further saying that she has claimed a settlement of Rs 37 lakh but so far no settlement has been made.
In this, the pending dues amount to Rs 28 lakh while the rest of the money includes tax and legal costs.
How Did This Happen?
This all started on dates back to 2019 when a Gurugram hotelier, Rakesh Yadav, accused Oyo Hotel and Homes Pvt Ltd (OHHPL) of defaulting on payments and violating an agreement that required it to operate and maintain the hotel under the brand Oyo.
After that, the NCLT admitted a plea for corporate insolvency proceeding against OHHPL following his complaint during March 2021.
When this happened, Oyo was quick to challenge the order in the NCLAT.
After this, the NCLAT halted the formation of a committee of creditors as Oyo appealed that a demand draft of Rs 16 lakh, the pending amount claimed by Yadav, was issued to him under protest.
Although, the court had not stayed the corporate insolvency resolution process, so other aggrieved hotel owners could still submit their claims.
So, many hoteliers including Agarwalla filed their claims against the company.
Presently, the aggregated claimed amount was close to Rs 160 crore as per the sources.
In July, disappointing the hoteliers, the tribunal gave a ruling in favour of Oyo disallowing the intervention of these hoteliers.
It seems that this fresh appeal by Agarwalla is expected to bring a new dimension to the entire issue especially at a time when Oyo is aggressively preparing for an initial public offering (IPO).
To raise these funds, the softbank backed firm has shortlisted investment banks JP Morgan, Kotak Mahindra Capital and Citi for its IPO to raise in excess of a billion dollars.
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