Court to look at plea to regulate App-based cabs

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would examine a plea to regulate appbased taxi service provider like Ola and Uber to make them accountable for offences committed by drivers of vehicles.

The top court took note of the fact that the headquarters of most internet-based taxi providers are located in foreign countries and recently Uber was banned in London for refusing to subject itself to jurisdiction of local laws. "The issue of regulating public transport, including internet based taxi services, will be taken up on December 7," a bench of Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.

The bench's remark came after senior advocate Indira Jaising, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae in a matter related to implementation of victim compensation

scheme for sexual offences and acid attacks and women security, said several incidents of crime committed by their drivers have been reported. "These companies which run the app-based tax services do not have their company headquarters in India. Some companies have their headquarters in Norway or in some other foreign country. It is very difficult to hold them accountable for any crime committed by their drivers," Jaising said.