NEW DELHI: To fix accountability of app-based taxi service providers like Ola and Uber for offences committed by drivers of vehicles, the Supreme Court Thursday agreed to examine the issue. A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta expressed concern over the fact that all these taxi service providers are foreign based and if any crime is committed by drivers of the vehicles they can raise jurisdiction issues.
The bench’s remark came after senior advocate Indira Jaising, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae in a case pertaining to the implementation of victim compensation scheme for sexual offences and acid attacks and women’s security, said several incidents of crime committed by such drivers have been reported. “These companies who run the app-based taxi services do not have company headquarters in India... It is difficult to hold them accountable for any crime committed by their drivers,” Jaising said.
The bench said it will hear the plea on December 7 and asked Jaising to submit data and other details.