The National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) Ahmedabad branch initiated insolvency proceedings against cab-hailing platform BluSmart Mobility over a plea filed by financial creditor Catalyst Trusteeship, for a loan default totalling Rs 1.3 crore.
The Tribunal, comprising of Judicial Member Shammi Khan and Technical Member Sanjeev Kumar appointed NPV Insolvency Professionals Private Limited as the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) for the insolvency process and ordered the commencement of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), imposed a moratorium under Section 14 and directed NPV to take charge of BluSmart’s assets within 7 days.
Moratorium and public notice timeline
The moratorium prohibits the initiation or continuation of any legal proceedings against BluSmart, or the transfer or sale of any company assets, and bars the enforcement of security interests established by the company. No property recovery from the company’s possession will be allowed during the moratorium’s enforcement, which will continue until the insolvency process is complete or the Tribunal approves a resolution plan or passes an order for liquidation.
NPV, Gensol, and wider promoter group under scrutiny
Concurrently, the Registrar of Companies has been directed by the Tribunal to update BluSmart’s status as “under CIRP” on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs portal.
Additionally, Catalyst Trusteeship was directed to deposit Rs 10 lakh to cover the initial CIRP costs. NPV will be issuing a public announcement within 3 days to invite claims from creditors. In a conversation with FE, NPV’s Managing Director, Ritesh Adatiya, said, “We estimate the number of claims against BluSmart to go up to significantly, and have a 40-member team working on the insolvency process.”
It may also be recalled that BluSmart was co-founded by Anmol Singh Jaggi, Punit K. Goyal and Puneet Singh Jaggi. The Jaggi brothers are also promoters of Gensol Engineering and Gensol EV Lease, which are also in the process of insolvency resolution. Adatiya commented, “As Gensol is the affiliate entity of Blusmart, we are working in tandem with Keshav Khaneja, the IRP for Gensol, to ensure a smooth insolvency process.”
Presently, about 46% of BluSmart’s shares are owned by the Jaggi brothers, while the rest of the shares are owned by institutional investors.