On 29 July, justice Manmohan of the Delhi high court directed strict enforcement of the 1 January state government order banning app-based cab services until they complied with the guidelines. The Delhi government’s scheme providing for replacement of diesel taxis with the CNG cabs could not be enforced, he said. “It can not be done overnight”.
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ANI Technologies Ltd., which provides app-based cab services under the name of Ola, had on September 3 told the court that it has modified its software to ensure that no diesel taxis provide point-to-point service in the city.
Nayar stated he wanted time to hunt instruction from Uber on this facet of the time-frame through which they will part out diesel taxis.
The court is hearing a plea filed by Association of Radio Taxis.
Recently, the Government had enacted a fresh scheme namely City Taxi Scheme, 2015 which effectively replaced the earlier Radio Taxi Scheme of 2006. Uber’s petition has taken exception to the definition of clean fuel being restricted to CNG and LPG in the city taxi scheme and said the new scheme required the companies like it to share their location, even as this condition did not apply to radio taxis.
India’s central government has advised state administrations to issue licenses to app-based ride-hailing service providers, according to people familiar with the matter.
To which Khan said that the police and Delhi government’s enforcement team have impounded the vehicles plying illegally. Appearing for the association senior advocate Nidesh Gupta pointed out that Delhi’s transport department is only prosecuting Ola if its cabs are found to be running on diesel.
HC sarcastically observed that if the two governments want to become a “laughing stock and make a mockery of themselves, then let it be”. “How can they say that they cannot block the websites”, the judge asked, adding that a few senior official of the Centre should take up the issue seriously.
The high court had on August 11 dismissed Ola’s appeal against its July 29 order, saying the company was “factually incorrect” to contend non-CNG commercial vehicles like diesel cabs, were not barred from plying in the national capital. The scheme was amended after a woman executive was allegedly raped in an Uber cab in December past year.
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Learning about the violation of its orders the court pulled up the governments.
