New city taxi scheme being finalised: AAP government to High Court

A week after police and transport authorities were pulled up for non-enforcement of the law regulating cabs following rape of a woman inside a taxi, the AAP government today informed the Delhi High Court that a new scheme for managing such entities was being finalised.

The Delhi government told a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar that the City Taxi Scheme 2017 was being finalised and the licencing of app-based cab services was in process. The Delhi government, represented by advocate Gautam Narayan, sought four weeks time to place the regulations before the bench.

The court, thereafter, listed the matter for further hearing on November 15. The bench on September 14 had taken cognisance of a September 12 incident in which the driver of a black-yellow taxi allegedly offered a lift to a woman and then sexually assaulted her.

The court on its own had taken note of a report in an English daily titled ‘Rape in cab brings back focus on blatant violation of norms’.

Referring to the incident, the court had said, “It points out that enforcement agencies, Delhi Police and traffic police are unable to check gross violation of law by taxi drivers in Delhi, resulting in serious crimes including sexual violence against passengers.”

It had also ordered that the victim should be provided with immediate legal aid and compensation.

Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) secretary Sanjeev Jain today placed a status report before the bench, saying interim compensation and legal aid has been provided to the victim and efforts to rehabilitate her are underway.

The news report had said the 30-year-old taxi driver was arrested for allegedly raping the 23-year-old woman at a park near Red Fort on September 12. The woman had alleged that the driver raped her on the pretext of dropping her to a bus stand from where she could go to Ludhiana. The court, quoting the report, had noted that the practice of operating shared taxis was common around railway stations.

The taxi in question did not have a GPS-based fare meter, which has been made mandatory by the transport department but has faced stiff resistance from autorickshaw and taxi unions.