Ola cabs remains banned in Delhi as high court dismisses plea

In a setback to Ola cabs, Delhi High Court dismissed its plea challenging a single-judge order upholding Delhi government's ban on such taxi services.

"Appeal dismissed," a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath said.

On July 29, single-judge, in his interim order, had directed Delhi government's transport department and traffic police to "strictly enforce" the January 1 ban.

The single-judge also sought an undertaking from ANI Technologies, which operates under the brand name of Ola that it will comply with the court's order.

On August 4, the division bench had reserved its order after hearing arguments on Ola's plea. Ola accused single-judge of overlooking Supreme Court's orders on the kind of taxis that can run on city's roads.

Ola had argued that other non-app based taxi organisations come under Radio Taxi Scheme and Ola does not own the vehicles that run under their brand and only connects the taxis with customers.

The company released an official statement stating, "We respect the Honorable Divisional Bench's order on commercial diesel vehicles on all aggregator platforms in the state of New Delhi, as well as on those plying independently. We are working closely with the authorities to help and support the thousands of driver entrepreneurs and lakhs of citizens in the state, who use the Ola app."

The Delhi government had said the All India Tourist Permit (AITP) vehicles that operate under Ola brand are meant for tourist destinations and not point-to-point service in city.

In this regard, the single-judge admonished Ola for not complying with the ban imposed on it by Delhi government on January 01 this year and refused to grant it any interim relief.

The single-judge had refused to provide any relief to Ola.

The court had earlier questioned how Ola was operating in Delhi when the city government's order banning them had not been stayed and warned of a shutdown if it thought it was above the law.