Supreme Court rejects Stayzilla's appeal against NCLT

The last hope for Yogendra Vasupal gets disappeared as the Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the co-founder of hotel and homestay aggregator Stayzilla. Vasupal had challenged the insolvency proceedings ordered by National Company Law Tribunal, Chennai.

Earlier, in a case filed by Jigsaw Advertising and Solutions with the NCLT-Chennai against Stayzilla for unpaid dues of Rs 1.7 crore. The court found that online stay home aggregator has defaulted in the payment of the outstanding debt to Jigsaw Advertising and Solutions along with interest. NCLT then initiated a 180-day interim resolution professional (IRP) to be spearheaded by a professional.

After a dismissal at the NCLT, Vasupal had approached the Supreme Court in November, last year. ­

“I stand vindicated. Wonder what the defaulters and their lobbyists will cry about now,” said Aditya GC Shekhar, CEO, JigSaw Solutions, reports TOI.

The dispute started after Vasupal's announcement on February 24, 2017, that Stayzilla suspended operations, claiming that it will restructure itself and reboot operations.

Soon after, based on a complaint from Jigsaw, Vasupal was arrested by the police on March 14 on counts of cheating, a day after an FIR was filed. However, Vasupal got bail from Madras High Court after a month on April 11, while cofounder Sachit Singhi got anticipatory bail.

Vasupal then furnished proof of Aditya cheating them with photoshopped pictures as proof of delivery for Stayzilla’s advertising campaign. He also pointed out that various parties owed us as much as Rs 7 crore and we were not going to file criminal cases against them.

Expressing his shock against NCLT insolvency order, Vasupal also raised his concern over the issues of lack of adequate recovery laws in India for startups.

More than 70 entrepreneurs and industry members, including Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal, and Mohandas Pai, who formed an informal group called Help Yogi’, had come in support of Vasupal.

The Supreme Court's decision has brought a full stop to the year-long story.