दिल्ली हाई कोर्ट ने ऐप‑आधारित टैक्सियों में महिला सुरक्षा को सुदृढ़ करने के लिए कंपनियों को नोटिस भेजा

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A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued notices to Uber India, Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which operates Rapido, and ANI Technologies, which operates Ola.

The Delhi High Court has sought responses from the Centre, Delhi government, Delhi Police and major app-based transport platforms over a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking stronger safeguards for women travelling in cabs, bike taxis, three-wheelers and other ride-hailing services in the national capital.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued notices to Uber India, Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which operates Rapido, and ANI Technologies, which operates Ola. The matter has been listed for further hearing on December 16.

The PIL has been filed by Aditya Sehgal and seeks a broad review of safety arrangements currently followed by app-based transportation aggregators, along with mandatory safety protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Why was the PIL filed?

The petition raises concerns over several aspects of passenger safety, including verification of drivers and their criminal backgrounds, matching drivers and vehicles with information shown on apps, route deviations, emergency assistance, complaint handling, preservation of electronic evidence and coordination between ride-hailing companies and police authorities.

The plea says representations had earlier been made to Uber India Systems Private Limited, Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited and the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, regarding these concerns. According to the petition, the responses received did not adequately address the issues raised.

It also refers to media-reported incidents involving women passengers, including allegations of drivers deviating from designated routes, behaving inappropriately, issuing threats, harassing passengers, engaging in misconduct, and contacting women after rides.

What did the court say?

During the hearing, the bench indicated that private operators of taxi applications should also be accountable for the safety systems offered to passengers.

“We want to make the private operators of the taxi apps accountable. That is the reason we are issuing notices,” the bench observed.

The petitioner's counsel also told the court that app-based companies operate more than two lakh cabs in the Delhi-NCR region. The counsel alleged that there is inadequate checking of drivers during night hours.

The submission specifically referred to the absence of checks after 8 pm or 9 pm to determine whether drivers were operating at airports or other strategic locations and whether they were under the influence of alcohol.

Driver and vehicle verification

One of the principal demands is that the person and vehicle actually carrying a passenger should correspond with the details displayed on the ride-hailing application.

The PIL proposes that an unauthorised change of driver or vehicle should be treated as a safety incident. Passengers should also be allowed to cancel such rides without being charged a cancellation penalty.

The proposed framework also includes automated alerts when there is a significant or unexplained deviation from the expected route.

Emergency response and surveillance

The petition calls for 24×7 Command and Control Centres capable of receiving, monitoring and responding to emergency and SOS alerts.

Under the proposed system, information such as booking details, driver identity, vehicle registration number and the passenger's real-time location could be provided to emergency responders and police, subject to applicable law and privacy safeguards.

The plea additionally seeks surveillance and monitoring arrangements at vulnerable, isolated and high-risk locations. These could include surveillance or patrol vehicles and technological systems capable of identifying suspicious movement, extended stoppages and significant route deviations.

Training, complaints and women drivers

The petitioner has sought regular and verifiable training for drivers covering gender sensitisation, appropriate behaviour with women passengers, prevention of sexual harassment, personal boundaries, emergency situations and the consequences of misconduct.

The PIL argues that such training should not become merely an online or tick-box compliance exercise.

It also proposes a time-bound grievance mechanism for complaints involving driver misconduct, harassment, assault, route deviation, unauthorised driver or vehicle substitution and failures in emergency response. Cases requiring police intervention would be escalated to the authorities.

Another proposal is to create a pool of verified female drivers. Women travelling alone could be given an option to request or receive preferential allocation of such drivers, depending on availability and operational feasibility.

Matter to be heard on Dec 16

The Centre, Delhi government, Delhi Police and the concerned private companies have been asked to respond to the PIL. The matter will next be heard on December 16.

Advocates Vikas Gupta, Kushik Anand and Sohil Sharma are representing the petitioner, while Aditya Sehgal is also named among the lawyers representing the petitioner in the proceedings.

Speaking to IANS, advocate Vikas Gupta said the objective was to prevent incidents rather than respond only after they occur: “A PIL was filed before the Delhi High Court, seeking directions for the protection and security of women passengers who use app-based cabs, motorcycles, three-wheelers and other modes of transportation. The main idea is to prevent such incidents from happening rather than coming down heavily once an incident takes place.”

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