HC directs state to address faults in redressal mechanism of cab aggregators

Court granted the state two months to ensure that the suggestions and complaints of the passengers were adequately addressed by the cab aggregators on their apps.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the state government to find out deficiencies in the app-based complaint redressal mechanism formulated by cab aggregators. The court has granted the government two months to complete the process and ensure that the grievances raised by the petitioner and other passengers are addressed adequately, in line with the central guidelines.

Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas for Uber India agreed with HC and said that it was willing to hear the suggestions of the state (Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Makarand Karnik, while hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Savina Crasto over the problems faced by passengers and the absence of a proper redressal system, was informed that the compliance report filed by the state was incomplete.

Crasto submitted that there was no mention of the grievance redressal mechanism that the aggregators had in place and how they would improve upon it. Crasto said that though provisional licenses were issued by the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) as per the March 2022 state government notification in this regard, the process of addressing commuters’ issues would not be complete unless grievances raised in the PIL, as well as the complaints of other commuters, were not brought on record by submitting them before the court.

The court, however, did not encourage the prospect of including passenger grievances in the PIL as it would enlarge the scope of the petition. It rather granted the state two months to ensure that the suggestions and complaints of the passengers were adequately addressed by the cab aggregators on their apps.

Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas for Uber India agreed with HC and said that it was willing to hear the suggestions of the state as well as passengers and find ways to address the same in the app.

On Monday, the state had filed a compliance report stating that after the March 7 order of HC, it had directed the 11 RTAs in the state to receive applications for licenses from cab aggregators. All 29 applications had been received till March 16 out of which 12 had been granted provisional licenses while the remaining were under consideration.

On Tuesday, after hearing all parties the court said, “We are granting two months. The state is expected to consider the experiences and the nature of complaints that are lodged with the aggregators with the apps formulated by the aggregators for the purpose of finding deficiencies if any in the system. The deficiencies will be addressed in a time-bound manner. The state is at liberty to give suggestions to implement guidelines for implementing conditions.”

The bench further said that the mechanism had to be consumer-friendly and if any area required the attention of the central and state government the same should be brought to the notice of the state government and posted hearing of the PIL on June 20. “Anything in the interest of passengers can be put on the affidavit which the court will consider,” the court added.