Ola, Uber operating illegally, government tells Delhi High Court

App-based taxi services Ola and Uber are plying illegally in the national capital as their applications for licence had been rejected by the AAP government’s transport department, the AAP government’s transport department alleged in an affidavit in the Delhi high court.

In its status report, the Delhi government said that the transport department has already framed the “City Taxi Scheme, 2015” whereby the aggregator is also allowed to seek licence and it can run its business in the national capital. But the app-based unlicenced operators are said to have not applied under the said scheme so far. As per the scheme, the licencee can charge fare as prescribed by the transport department from time to time and as such there is no provision under the scheme for charging any kind of “peak time charge” or “surge prices”.

The government said that the app-based companies were unlicenced and they were not allowed to charge more than the prescribed fare in the shape of “surge price” or “peak time charge” and punitive action was being taken against the violators by the enforcement department and traffic police teams.

The government’s response came on a plea filed by Magic Sewa Pvt Ltd which has alleged that certain unlicenced taxi aggregators “have been disdainfully violating” its notification on fares by charging very low amounts like Rs 5 per km or as high as Rs 38 per km.

The transport department has already issued a helpline number aimed at bringing overcharging drivers to book, warning of legal consequences, including cancellation of permits and impounding of vehicles. Any complaint related to the overcharging could be made on the helpline number along with a copy of the bill and taxi number in cases of overcharging.

The government said that 119 challans have been issued by the transport wing so far against the taxi operators and most of these were attached with unlicenced aggregators. At present, the fares applicable on city taxis are decided by the government under Section 67 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

The city administration is also in the process of preparing rules to regulate the application based aggregators and to prevent uneconomical competitions among the permit holders. The government has told the court that the app-based unlicenced taxi service operators were abusing the process of law to delay in seeking the licences as the same would make them liable to follow the rules and regulations formulated as per the “City Taxi Scheme, 2015” and they were also not willing to abide by the same.