SC orders status quo on Bombay HC order, asks Uber to comply with MVA Guidelines

The Supreme Court Thursday ordered status quo on the Bombay High Court order directing Uber India to comply with Motor Vehicle Aggregator MVA Guidelines issued by the CentreA bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai issued notice to the Centre Ministry of Road Transport and others on an appeal filed by Uber India Services Private Ltd against the High Courts orderNotice and status quo You serve on the other side we will list it after two or three weeks the bench saidSenior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Uber submitted that it has serious objections to the validity of the GuidelinesThe top court was hearing an appeal filed by Taxi aggregator Uber India against the March 7 2022 order of the high court directing cab aggregators to comply with MVA Guidelines 2020Observing that appbased taxi firms such as Ola and Uber operating in Maharashtra without valid licenses were an instance of complete lawlessness the High Court had directed all such aggregators to apply for valid licenses by March 16 if they wish to continue operationsThe HC had refrained from prohibiting such cabs from plying in the meanwhile saying it was aware such a move would adversely affect commutersThe high court had passed the directions while hearing public interest litigation filed by advocate Savina Crasto highlighting the lack of an effective grievance redressal mechanism for customers using the Uber India appCrasto had cited an incident from November 2020 when she booked an Uber ride in the city and was dropped off midway at a shady dark place and she found that the firms app had no effective option to lodge complaintsThough the Central government had issued the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines meant to regulate such cabs those in the state were operating based on permits issued to them under Maharashtra City Taxi Rules 2017This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever