Bombay HC to govt: Fix fares for Ola, Uber

Mumbai: The Bombay high court Wednesday directed the Maharashtra government to decide in eight weeks about a 2017 report submitted by a state-appointed committee to fix fares for app-based taxi aggregators Ola and Uber.

In October 2016, the state government had constituted a four-member committee under the chairmanship of retired IAS officer B.C. Khatua to decide on minimum and maximum fare structure for companies like Ola and Uber. The committee in September 2017 submitted an exhaustive report to the government. But, till date, the government had not taken a final decision on the committee’s report and recommendations.

A division bench of Justices B.P. Dharmadhikari and Revati Mohite Dere Wednesday noted that the issue had been pending since then. “We direct the state government to take a suitable decision on the report within a period of eight weeks,” the court ordered.

The bench was hearing petitions filed by Uber India Ltd., Ola Ltd. and six drivers plying cabs with these two companies, challenging the Maharashtra City Taxi Rules implemented by the state government in 2017.

When the petition was heard in November 2017, the government said it would go through the committee’s report and take a final decision soon. The government said until then it would not take any coercive steps against taxi drivers under the rules. The petitioners, however, claimed that the rules were arbitrary and bad in law.