Insolvency application against Rediff.com rejected by tribunal
Insolvency petition against Rediff.com, the Mumbai-based News and Information, Enterprise Email Services and Online Shopping Marketplace firm, was rejected by the National Company Law Tribunal on the grounds that there is a pre-existing dispute between the corporate debtor and the petitioner.
The petitioner — Ripple IP Services Private Limited (an operational creditor) — engaged in providing various intellectual property (IP) solutions including patent research, patent preparation and prosecution, competitive analytics, IP process and other support services.
Ripple IP services has petitioned in the NCLT that Rediff.com failed to make payment of a sum of Rs 15,83,857. The amount comprises of principal amount of Rs 12,04,474 and interest of Rs.3,79,403 calculated @18% per annum. The date of default was stated to be 1 April 2017.
Responding to the insolvency application filed by Ripple IP services, Rediff.com has misrepresented the true facts deliberately and has concealed the misdeeds and wrongs done by the operational creditor.
Rediff.com even alleged that the invoices raised by Ripple IP Services are fabricated and unjustifiable.
Rediff argued that all the invoices raised by the operational creditor are dated 1 march 2017, while in the Company Petition it is stated that the invoices raised by the Operational Creditor are between 1 July 2015 and 30 April 2016.
“It clearly shows the malafide intentions of the Operational Creditor by fabricating and tampering of the invoices to claim baseless debt amount from the Corporate Debtor. That no prudent commercial enterprise would process such invoices without seeking corroboration of the fact that the purported work was authorized and approved and done,” Rediff.com said in its argument.
The corporate debtor also pointed out pre-existing dispute between the parties.
According to the corporate debtor, it had engaged the operational creditor for IP services such as patent filings and prosecution in India and abroad to provide its services from June 12, 2013 to January 31, 2017.
For said services, Rediff.com had paid Rs.12,30,110 since July 2010. The Corporate Debtor states that on receiving unseen and unfounded claims for further sums, reviewed the correspondences and documents exchanged earlier and discovered discrepancies in the same. Hence, Rediff.com through its email dated 24 January 2018 corresponded with operational creditor asking for clarification and supporting documents for reimbursement of expenses as claimed totalling to Rs 7,95,984 and copies of missing invoices totalling to 4,08,470.
The NCLT while did not accept the corporate debtor’s contention that invoices raised were fabricated, but it did accept the fact that invoices which were raised were never accepted by Rediff.
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