NCLT admits insolvency plea against OYO for unpaid Rs 16 lakh to supplier; company goes to NCLAT

Oyo Hotels founder Ritesh Agarwal took to Twitter to refute the company filing for bankruptcy after the supplier's claim

After being dragged into insolvency proceedings by one of its operational creditors, online hotel rooms aggregator Oyo Hotels and Rooms Private Limited has moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the NCLT order to initiate insolvency resolution.

Oyo Rooms was dragged to the insolvency court, National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) which is the insolvency court in 2020, by an operational creditor for defaulting payment of Rs 16 lakh.

The NCLT recently ordered bankruptcy proceedings against Oyo Rooms after which the insolvency professional Keyur Jagdishbhai Shah had even asked creditors of the company to submit their claims. Once insolvency proceedings begin, the resolution professional is required to invite claims from all creditors.

Read: Govt amends insolvency law; introduces pre-packaged resolution process for MSMEs

The company went on to say in its statement, “We are surprised to hear that the Hon’ble NCLT has admitted a petition against OHHPL a subsidiary of OYO for Rs 16 Lakh in a contractual dispute, which is not even connected with this subsidiary.”

Oyo’s founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal took to microblogging site Twitter to clarify that Rs 16 lakh has been paid to the applicant, a person named Rakesh Yadav, who is one of Oyo’s service partners in the National Capital Region (NCR).

“OYO has paid that under protest and the amount has already been banked by the claimant. OYO has also appealed with the NCLAT about the matter. OYO is recovering from the pandemic steadily and our largest markets are operating profitably,” Agarwal said in his tweet.

This is not the first time the company has been dragged to the insolvency court. In March 2020, one of its partners in Hyderabad had filed a similar petition claiming that the company had breached a contract of paying Rs 13 lakh every month since 2018. This petition was filed against Oravel Stays Private Limited, the company that owns Oyo Rooms. This petition was quashed by the insolvency court.