Consumer court orders Uber to pay Rs 20,000 to Mumbai lady for poor services
Mumbai: Held guilty by a district consumer court in the city of deficiency in services, Uber India has been ordered to pay Rs 20,000 to a local customer as compensation.
Complainant Kavita Sharma, an advocate from Dombivli, had missed her flight to Chennai on June 12, 2018, due to a delay caused by the Uber driver on the way to the airport. The firm was told by the court recently to pay Rs 10,000 for mental agony and an additional Rs 10,000 as litigation cost, reported Times of India.
Sharma was to take the flight from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 5:50 pm and booked an Uber cab at around 3:29 pm to reach the airport, which was 36 km from her house. The car arrived at her house in 14 minutes, the driver picking her only after several calls. Also, the driver was busy with his phone even after arriving and started the trip to the airport only after finishing his phone call. The driver took a wrong turn, and also drove the vehicle to a CNG station, wasting an additional quarter hour, the complainant has said.
The car reached the airport at only 5:23 pm. Sharma missed her flight and was forced to take the next available flight to Chennai at her own expense. In addition, while the estimated fare for the journey was Rs 563 at the time of booking, the complainant was billed an amount of Rs 703.
Sharma accused the driver of having been negligent and also unprofessional in conduct, causing her to miss her flight. She also said that, after she posted about the matter on Twitter, Uber refunded her Rs 139, the difference in the estimated fare and the actual fare for the trip.
After a legal notice to the transport firm for compensation also proved futile, Sharma is learned to have filed a complaint with the Thane additional district consumer disputes redressal commission.
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Money laundering case: SC rejects bail plea of suspended Jharkhand cadre IAS officer
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea of suspended Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Puja Singhal seeking bail in a money laundering matter, observing it is an "extraordinary case".
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta refused to interfere with the Jharkhand High Court order denying her bail.
The top court noted that out of 17 prosecution witnesses, 12 have been examined by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and hoped that the trial in the case is concluded expeditiously.
"You wait for some more time for bail. This is not a normal matter but an extraordinary case. There is something seriously wrong in this case. We are not inclined to entertain the instant petition. We hope the trial will be concluded expeditiously," it observed.
The bench, however, gave liberty to Singhal to revive her bail plea, if the trial is prolonged or is there any other change in circumstance.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the ED, opposed the bail plea and said that out of the total custody period, she has spent most of the time in a hospital at Ranchi.
On February 10, 2023, the top court had granted Singhal interim bail for two months to enable her to take care of her ailing daughter.
Singhal has been in custody since May 11, 2022 after raids were conducted at properties linked to her in connection with the money laundering case.
The case relates to alleged corruption in the implementation of MGNREGA, the Centre's flagship scheme for rural employment.
The ED has accused Singhal, a former state mines department secretary, of money laundering and said its team seized more than Rs 36 crore cash linked to alleged illegal mining as part of two separate money laundering investigations.
Apart from the 2000 batch IAS officer, her businessman husband, a chartered accountant associated with the couple, and others were also raided by the ED as part of the money laundering probe.
Singhal was suspended following her arrest.
