"The Karnataka High Court has directed the cab operators not to demand surge price from commuters, and we as the government agency will honor the ruling of the court, asking us not to impound cabs affiliated to Uber and Ola for plying without licence," State Transport Commissioner Rame Gowda told PTI in Bengaluru.
Making their submission, counsel for transport department said the cab aggregators, under the provisions of the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules 2016, should hold effective licence issued to them.
Gowda, on May 28, had said that the cab aggregators, not having licence, should immediately cease plying taxis and warned of impounding the vehicles.
"The companies which have not obtained licences from the concerned authority should stop operations with immediate effect otherwise strict action will be taken against such operators," he said.
The Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules 2016, which was notified in April, said, "No person shall act or permit any other person to act as an aggregator unless he holds an effective licence issued to him under these rules".
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 licence , inspite of its repeated warnings to them.
The next hearing has been posted to June 20.
For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.