Ola accuses Uber of knowingly ignoring Indian ride-hail laws
Indian ride-hailing platform, Ola has filed an affidavit before an Indian high court accusing Uber of ignoring the rules of the state and recruiting non-professional drivers to offer a taxi service. According to Ola, Uber has demonstrated "a complete lack of business ethic...Uber India has intentionally failed to comply with the laws of the land and is responsible for multiple violations in several jurisdictions". This follows last week’s news that Ola became the first in the Indian ride-hail race to have its business licence granted, meaning it is now operating legally, something that Uber has not yet managed, despite having submitted an application.

Even as the Karnataka High Court later today will be hearing a petition filed by the US-based taxi aggregator Uber asking for the removal of new rules by the state government, its rival Ola is quietly playing the nationalist card to tame down the former.

Ola Cabs on Monday submitted in the Karnataka High Court that it has complied with all requirements of the government rules for its operations. ANI Technologies Limited, engaged in providing mobile app- based technological platform by the name of Ola Cabs, submitted this in its counter to a petition by rival Uber India Technologies Private Limited challenging the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules, 2016.

Last week, Ola got a license under the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016, by complying with physical meters, taxi boards, emergency buttons and GPS on 100 cabs.

Counsel for the company alleged that Uber was continuing illegal activities, giving scant respect to the laws of the country. The counter charged that Uber's petition was motivated and filed in an attempt to bypass the laws of the land by foreign companies who run their operations in India for profit without due regard for applicable laws.

On the contrary, Ola, being a law-abiding company, has complied with all requirements of the rules and a license there under has been issued to it to run its operations on June 20 by the competent authorities, he said. Uber had, in its petition, challenged the authority of the state government to frame the rules under Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

Ola's counsel also claimed that Uber had been running motorcycle-taxi operations under "UberMoto" on its platform with white number plates in Bengaluru city for over three months in spite of the fact that around 120 of such bikes were impounded by the authorities.

"Uber continues to offer such motorcycle-taxis (with white number plates) on its platform in Gurgaon, Haryana, despite the fact that the competent authorities have issued a public notice in this regard," Ola's counsel said. The authorities had also served two other notices to Uber directing it to stop and desist from providing its "illegal activities" on its platform. However, it was continuing the same, he alleged.

Taking into account the non-compliance of laws, authorities in Bhopal had taken action against Uber and sealed its offices, the counsel said. Uber had moved the court after the transport department impounded the vehicles for not securing licences under the new norms.

It also suspended taxis, which led to protests by drivers. Drivers have also independently filed a petition in court. The transport department had in April hit the cab aggregators by increasing the penalty from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000, for allegedly operating services without obtaining necessary license, despite its repeated warnings.

Both Ola and Uber, are fighting a bitter battle on the streets to gain market share. Both firms pay incentives to drivers to work on their platform and offer discounts to customers, Business Standard reported.

With PTI inputs