The Delhi High Court today made it clear that it will not allow its orders to be circumvented through mere technicalities..On a plea filed by Association of Radio Taxis, a Single Bench of Justice Manmohan passed an order that the Court’s refusal to lift the ban imposed on OLA Cabs (later re-affirmed by the Division Bench) ‘shall apply uniformly to the other cab companies such as Mega Cabs, Meru Cabs, Eezee Cabs etc.’.This order shall apply to all diesel cabs operated by companies that run point to point services within the NCR region and effectively brings all similarly situated cab companies under the purview of the operation of the Delhi Government’s ban imposed from January 1, 2015. .The Association’s plea had stated that the app-based cab companies were violating the ban orders of the Court as well as of the Government, with “impunity”. Senior Counsel Nidhesh Gupta appearing for the Association had informed the Court that when they were questioned about this, the rationale given by the companies was that the Court’s order operated only qua OLA cabs and not on them..Yesterday when the matter was heard, the Bench was informed by the Association as to how its orders were being circumvented by OLA cabs, which was running diesel vehicles through its wholly owned subsidiary cab company, Taxi For Sure. Gupta had submitted that the Court’s ban order was applicable to all cab companies plying diesel vehicles and made it clear that ‘only CNG was to be used’ for plying All India Tourist Permit (AITP) vehicles within Delhi..Senior Counsel P Chidambaram had appeared for OLA and argued that OLA was ‘an aggregator and not a radio taxi operator’, in which case the Radio Taxi Scheme of 2006 (which has since been replaced by the City Taxi Scheme of 2015 from August) did not apply to OLA. He also submitted that presently there were no such rules/regulations applying to aggregators and the Delhi Government was expecting compliance from OLA, to a scheme that did not apply to them..When the Bench questioned the Delhi Govt as to why was the ban not being enforced, Additional Standing Counsel for the Govt Naushad Ahmed Khan said that their modes of tracing diesel vehicles had been “restricted” by the companies who had placed the number of the Govt’s enforcement agencies on their block list. He also submitted that ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd. (Company that owns OLA Cabs) continued to run diesel vehicles and since their cabs did not have any identification on them, monitoring was difficult..Surprised at these submissions, Justice Manmohan observed that it was “shocking” on how helpless the State authorities were on enforcing the orders of the Court..Addressing Senior Counsel Rajeev Nayyar who appeared for Uber Justice Manmohan said,.“I can not discriminate against one party. One person (OLA) comes to me challenging the government’s ban and I pass an order against them. Now I will have to extend the scope of the order to other similarly placed parties. I won’t be fair to myself if I say Mr. OLA you can not do this and Mr. Uber you can. Give me an undertaking on a realistic time frame that you will need to shift to the CNG platform.”.Responding to this, Nayyar had said that phasing out from the diesel platform ‘could not be done overnight’ and that he wanted to seek instructions to work out a reasonable time period. Today, when the Bench questioned Nayyar about this, he sought a time of six months which was not acceptable to the Court..Supporting his request and hinting at OLA, Nayyar said that ‘unlike others’ he did not wish to be plying diesel cabs even after the designated deadline of conversion to CNG. Ultimately, the Bench granted time till March 1 to Uber for shifting away from the diesel platform and converting its taxis to CNG. It also made it clear that no further extension of time would be granted to the company for completing this exercise..Yet another crucial submission made by all the Counsels was regarding the insufficiency of CNG stations and equipments in the capital for complying with the orders of the Court, effectively. Justice Manmohan granted liberty to the parties to file a separate application in this regard which he said, would be duly considered..The Bench kept the petitions pending for further arguments and they will now come up for hearing on December 17.
The Delhi High Court today made it clear that it will not allow its orders to be circumvented through mere technicalities..On a plea filed by Association of Radio Taxis, a Single Bench of Justice Manmohan passed an order that the Court’s refusal to lift the ban imposed on OLA Cabs (later re-affirmed by the Division Bench) ‘shall apply uniformly to the other cab companies such as Mega Cabs, Meru Cabs, Eezee Cabs etc.’.This order shall apply to all diesel cabs operated by companies that run point to point services within the NCR region and effectively brings all similarly situated cab companies under the purview of the operation of the Delhi Government’s ban imposed from January 1, 2015. .The Association’s plea had stated that the app-based cab companies were violating the ban orders of the Court as well as of the Government, with “impunity”. Senior Counsel Nidhesh Gupta appearing for the Association had informed the Court that when they were questioned about this, the rationale given by the companies was that the Court’s order operated only qua OLA cabs and not on them..Yesterday when the matter was heard, the Bench was informed by the Association as to how its orders were being circumvented by OLA cabs, which was running diesel vehicles through its wholly owned subsidiary cab company, Taxi For Sure. Gupta had submitted that the Court’s ban order was applicable to all cab companies plying diesel vehicles and made it clear that ‘only CNG was to be used’ for plying All India Tourist Permit (AITP) vehicles within Delhi..Senior Counsel P Chidambaram had appeared for OLA and argued that OLA was ‘an aggregator and not a radio taxi operator’, in which case the Radio Taxi Scheme of 2006 (which has since been replaced by the City Taxi Scheme of 2015 from August) did not apply to OLA. He also submitted that presently there were no such rules/regulations applying to aggregators and the Delhi Government was expecting compliance from OLA, to a scheme that did not apply to them..When the Bench questioned the Delhi Govt as to why was the ban not being enforced, Additional Standing Counsel for the Govt Naushad Ahmed Khan said that their modes of tracing diesel vehicles had been “restricted” by the companies who had placed the number of the Govt’s enforcement agencies on their block list. He also submitted that ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd. (Company that owns OLA Cabs) continued to run diesel vehicles and since their cabs did not have any identification on them, monitoring was difficult..Surprised at these submissions, Justice Manmohan observed that it was “shocking” on how helpless the State authorities were on enforcing the orders of the Court..Addressing Senior Counsel Rajeev Nayyar who appeared for Uber Justice Manmohan said,.“I can not discriminate against one party. One person (OLA) comes to me challenging the government’s ban and I pass an order against them. Now I will have to extend the scope of the order to other similarly placed parties. I won’t be fair to myself if I say Mr. OLA you can not do this and Mr. Uber you can. Give me an undertaking on a realistic time frame that you will need to shift to the CNG platform.”.Responding to this, Nayyar had said that phasing out from the diesel platform ‘could not be done overnight’ and that he wanted to seek instructions to work out a reasonable time period. Today, when the Bench questioned Nayyar about this, he sought a time of six months which was not acceptable to the Court..Supporting his request and hinting at OLA, Nayyar said that ‘unlike others’ he did not wish to be plying diesel cabs even after the designated deadline of conversion to CNG. Ultimately, the Bench granted time till March 1 to Uber for shifting away from the diesel platform and converting its taxis to CNG. It also made it clear that no further extension of time would be granted to the company for completing this exercise..Yet another crucial submission made by all the Counsels was regarding the insufficiency of CNG stations and equipments in the capital for complying with the orders of the Court, effectively. Justice Manmohan granted liberty to the parties to file a separate application in this regard which he said, would be duly considered..The Bench kept the petitions pending for further arguments and they will now come up for hearing on December 17.
