Oyo hit out at some hotel owners and its operational creditors who are seeking to reverse the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal's (NCLAT) decision to close an insolvency proceeding against the IPO-bound company's subsidiary.
The Supreme Court On October 8 briefly heard an appeal filed by a Siliguri-based hotel owner to overturn the relief offered to Oyo by the NCLAT, which closed an insolvency case against an Oyo subsidiary in July this year, after the original complainant had settled the matter with the hotel aggregator. The case has now been adjourned until October 21.
However, before the matter was adjourned, both parties made heated arguments, with Oyo's counsel KV Vishwanathan accusing the other side of "threats of blackmail" and "attempts to stop Oyo's IPO".
"These are operational creditors. They don't want to file their own petitions. They want to fire from the shoulders of a person who has settled before the constitution of the committee of creditors," Oyo's counsel argued in court on Friday.
"These petitions are intended to blackmail and fire from the shoulder of a party who has no grievance. These are attempts at blackmail since Oyo is going for an IPO. To prevent the IPO, messages are also being circulated maligning Oyo's counsels," Vishwanath added.
The counsel for the hotel owner argued that the insolvency process cannot be withdrawn individually by the party without the consent of all lenders.
"Only the IRP (interim resolution professional) can move for withdrawal, it cannot be done individually by the party," the counsel for the hotel owner, Neeraj Kaul said.
The NCLT Ahmedabad in April had launched IBC proceedings against an Oyo subsidiary over a payment default of Rs 16 lakh, but the hotel owner soon resolved the matter with Oyo and applied for withdrawal of the case. However, other creditors had intervened, including the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) on behalf of hotels over unpaid dues.
Operational creditors made claims of Rs 225 crore against Oyo.
Subsequently, the NCLAT had closed the CIRP process against the Oyo subsidiary in July and dismissed appeals for intervention in the case.
A Siliguri-based hotel owner Mona Agrawalla last month challenged NCLAT's decision in the Supreme Court. The FHRAI has also filed applications to intervene in the case.