Delhi Court to hear plea against Ola, Uber in July

A plea seeking prosecution of app-based cab service providers, including Ola and Uber, for allegedly not adhering to rules to raise fares would come up before a Delhi court on July 13.

Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra listed the matter for the next date to seek clarifications, after which it would reserve the order on the petition seeking summoning of the firms as accused.

The court had earlier treated “dismissed as withdrawn” an application filed by the same NGO seeking lodging of FIR against three app-based cab service providers, Ola, Uber and ‘Taxi for Sure’, holding that the offences alleged in the plea under the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act were “non-cognisable”.

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It had allowed complainant NGO Nyayabhoomi to lead evidence in support of the complaint under Section 200, CrPC, that these three cab companies were also allegedly violating permit conditions by running vehicles on diesel and providing point-to-point service in Delhi, violating Supreme Court orders.

The court has concluded recording pre-summoning evidence advanced by the complainant NGO, through its secretary Rakesh Agarwal, in support of the complaint.

The NGO has sought recovery of a whopping Rs 91,000 crore from these cab service providers for allegedly not adhering to rules relating to fares and not going by the meters.

It had sought lodging of FIR alleging that by providing taxi and autorickshaw services, they were violating the permit conditions which amounted to commission of offences under sections 66 and 192A of the MV Act.

The complaint was filed against ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd which runs Ola, Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd and the Serendipity Infolabs Pvt Ltd which runs ‘Taxi For Sure’.

The NGO has also sought recovery of an additional penalty of Rs 26,000 crore from the firms and jail term for them.

In September last year, it had also filed a case in the National Consumer Commission against Ola and Uber seeking refund of Rs 9,239 crore to consumers which was collected through “illegal” surge pricing by these companies.