After the Aam Aadmi Party government affirmed that two app-based cab aggregators, Ola and Uber, were operating in the Capital illegally without any licence of Transport Department, the Delhi High Court on Monday directed that a meeting be convened with all stakeholders to resolve the issue of giving licences to the taxi service operators.
Justice J.R. Midha of the High Court asked the Delhi government to call within a week a meeting with Ola and Uber as well as another public transport service, Jugnoo, offering autorickshaw rides, to see if they were interested in getting fresh licences from the Transport Department.
The meeting will be attended by Delhi government's Transport Secretary and authorised representatives of the three app-based companies and the latter will share their views on the issue of licences, said the court.
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The Delhi government had informed the court through an affidavit last week that the alleged unlicensed aggregators, Ola and Uber, were operating illegally as the Transport Department had rejected their applications for licence on June 28, 2015.
The court's direction came during the hearing on a writ petition moved by Magic Sewa Private Limited, a radio taxi service operator, alleging that certain unlicensed taxi aggregators were violating the Delhi government's notification on fares by charging very low amounts like Rs.5 per km or as high as R.38 per km.
The petitioner said this was an urgent issue especially during the ongoing odd-even scheme, when the app-based operators were flouting the fare rulesand overcharging the passengers.
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As the counsel for the app-based companies said they were willing to get the licence, while their representation submitted to the government earlier was rejected, the court said since there was a shortage of public transport in the city, the taxi aggregators should be given an opportunity to apply for fresh licence.
The court directed the Delhi government to file a status report of the meeting by May 10.