Following up on a petition filed by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People’s (NCEPEDP) Executive Director Arman Ali against Uber India for alleged discrimination against persons with disability, the Delhi High Court in its findings has directed Ali to take steps for deletion of Uber India from the array of parties.
The lawsuit was initially filed in 2019 based on a complaint of an alleged incident of discrimination against Arman Ali by an Uber cab driver. The incident took place in 2019 when Ali says he was allegedly discriminated against by Uber India due to his disability. He states that he booked a cab using the Uber App to reach the Chennai airport to board a flight to Bangalore, and the same had been confirmed verbally with the cab driver. However, the trip was cancelled by the driver after making Ali wait for 20 minutes, who then booked a second cab through the same app.
When the cab arrived, the driver refused to keep Ali’s wheelchair in the backseat for the ride’s duration, stating that it would damage his car seat, and cancelled the trip. This caused the petitioner to miss his flight and the subsequent meetings planned in Bangalore. Apart from the financial loss he incurred, the complaint says the discrimination he faced owing to his disability is a serious violation of his fundamental rights as well as a punishable offence under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.
In an update to the incident, Uber India issued a statement stating that “The Delhi High Court heard the writ petition on May 5, 2022 filed against various government entities and Uber. However, after hearing the Petitioner (Aman Ali), the Court was of the opinion that no case was made out against Uber. The Court added that the directions passed by the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities would need to be implemented by the Union of India and accordingly notice was required to be issued only to the Union of India and not to Uber.”
The Court Order says that the petitioner may implead the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, NCT of Delhi. The oral prayer made in this regard is granted. Let an amended memo of parties consequently be placed on the record within a period of one week from today. Bearing in mind the nature of issues which are raised in the writ petition as well as the directions which are sought, the ends of justice would warrant the Respondent Nos. 1 and 2 being called upon to place a brief status report indicating the directives that may have been issued by the competent Ministries of the Union Government requiring Taxi Aggregators to take and adopt appropriate steps bearing in mind the interest of the physically challenged. Let that status report be placed on the record on or before the next date fixed.
