Hold meeting with Ola, Uber over licence: HC to Delhi government

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the city government to hold a meeting within a week with representatives of app-based taxi aggregators Ola and Uber to ascertain if they were interested in getting licence from the government.

The Delhi government informed the court through an affidavit that "the alleged unlicensed aggregators, Ola and Uber, are operating illegally as their applications for licence were rejected by the transport department (on June 28, 2015)".

Justice J.R. Midha asked the Delhi government to also include in the meeting another public transport service provider which offers autorickshaw service through an app called 'Jugnoo'.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Magic Sewa Pvt. Ltd., a radio taxi service operator, alleging that Ola and Uber were overcharging and arbitrarily applying surge rates during the odd-even traffic scheme.

It claimed that Ola and Uber were rampantly flouting the government's notification fixing the fares of economy taxis at Rs.12.5 per km, as they were actually charging Rs.40-50 per km in the name of surge pricing.

The court sought a status report from the government on the meeting by May 10.