Delhi High Court seeks Centre, Delhi govt reply on Uber plea to ply in city

Delhi High Court today sought response of the Centre and AAP government on Uber's plea that the authorities be restrained from interfering with its business.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath issued notice to the central and Delhi governments as well as the city traffic police seeking their replies on the petition of Uber, which runs an app-based taxi service in the national capital by using All India Tourist Permit (AITP) cabs running on diesel.

"Issue notice... Returnable on November 23," the bench said, which dismissed a connected petition of the company in which it had challenged the city government's Radio Taxi Scheme of 2006.

Uber BV, the parent company based in Netherlands, as well as its two Indian arms--Uber India Technology Pvt Ltd and Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd--have in their petition also challenged rejection of their application for licence to ply in the city.

Uber had applied under the modified Radio Taxi Scheme, but the government rejected their application on September 1, 2015, saying they have to apply under the new City Taxi Scheme, its petition has said.

The company, in its plea, has challenged the new scheme of the Delhi government as well as the September 1 order and has sought directions to the city government to issue them a licence to ply.

During the hearing, advocate Prabhsahay Kaur, appearing for the Delhi government, told the bench that the company was "violating with impunity" orders of the high court regarding running of diesel cabs without meters in the city.

In response to the court's query as to what action was being taken, she said the authorities were impounding the illegally operating taxis.

Meanwhile, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar, appearing for Uber, contended the Supreme Court did not ban plying of AITP diesel cabs in the national capital.

He also said the new scheme was ultra vires the Constitution as the city government did not have the jurisdiction to regulate cabs having AITP and only the central government can legislate on the issue.