Supreme Court to examine ways to ensure women safety in app-based cabs

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would examine ways and means to ensure safety of women by instituting a regulatory regime for app-based travel aggregators, such as Uber, especially when such crimes are committed by their drivers, and often inside their vehicles.

A bench, headed by Justice Madan B Lokur, said it would deal with the issue on December 7, 2017, after senior advocate Indira Jaising pointed out that safety and security of women was a major concern in mass transit transport whether government or private controlled.

Jaising is amicus to the court in a case relating to grant of compensation to rape victims under the Nirbhaya scheme. The scheme was brought in by the central government after the rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl on December 16, 2012, in a moving bus.

"The problem is that the headquarters of these companies (such as Uber) are abroad and there is no way to hold them answerable if their drivers or vehicles are involved in a crime," the senior advocate said.

The lawyer claimed that the company was facing a ban in London as it was not subjecting itself to the court’s jurisdiction there. "The company has been barred from providing the service there," she said. "Even India needs to have such a regulation," she contended.