The Karnataka High Court has posted to Friday the hearing of petitions filed by Ola and Uber challenging the state government order banning auto-rickshaw aggregate services.
Justice M G S Kamal adjourned the matter after Advocate General Prabhuling K Navadagi submitted that an emergency meeting will be held immediately to arrive at a consensus on the fare.
During the hearing, senior advocate Aditya Sondhi, appearing for ANI Technologies Limited that operates Ola cabs, submitted that the ban circumvents the high court’s interim order in pending matters.
Referring to the interim order passed in 2016, he said a division bench had stated that no coercive steps shall be taken. He further stated that this order was further modified, extending relaxation on licencing.
However, the Advocate General submitted that aggregator rules do not cover auto-rickshaws under the licences given to the companies under the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregators (KODTTA) Rules, 2016.
One of the petitions contended that the KODTTA rules permit aggregation of a taxi, defined under Rule 2 (7), as a motor cab and it is no longer res integra that an auto-rickshaw cab is a motor cab. The petition thus challenged the notice dated October 6, 2022, and the order dated October 11 as one without merit.