The Karnataka government on Monday informed the High Court that a decision on the online app-based autorickshaw-hailing services will be taken by November 25.
The government said the petitions of the service providers have been considered and a decision is pending.
Recently, the Karnataka transport department had directed to stop auto-hailing services as it was not covered under the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules in 2016. The department said that the licences issued were only for cab-hailing services.
When the service providers approached the High Court, it gave them permission to continue the services till the government took a decision regarding licences to be issued after speaking to all stakeholders.
Meanwhile, the BJP led-state government has also requested the court not to issue orders regarding the hike in rates sought by the service providers until a decision was taken. The court was told that the rates will be decided by November 25.The hearing is adjourned to November 28 after recording the submissions.
The transport department’s decision to stop autorickshaw-hailing services was challenged by ANI Technologies Private Limited and Uber India Systems Private Limited before the high court.
After a meeting on October 6, the authorities issued an order stating autorickshaw and cab services available under the online apps violated the KODTTA rules and licence.
The government had held that ‘taxi’ service was only for cars and not autorickshaws. They told the high court that app-based aggregators were charging more than the rates fixed by the authorities by levying surcharge and had not obtained licence for aggregating autorickshaws. Therefore their services have been stopped.
(Inputs from PTI)
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Rabia Shireen is a Staff Reporter at The Cognate.
