K'taka HC stays order directing Ola to pay compensation to woman for 'sexual harassment' by driver
Bengaluru, Oct 5: The Karnataka High Court has stayed a single judge order, directing app-based cab aggregator Ola to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to a woman who alleged sexual harassment by an Ola driver in 2019.
A division bench of Justices S R Krishna Kumar and M G Uma passed an interim order on ANI Technologies Private Limited's (Ola) appeal against the single judge verdict dated September 30.
In his verdict, the single judge bench had held that the relationship between ANI Technologies Private Limited (Ola) and its drivers was that of employer-employee.
He had directed Ola and its Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh, along with Rs 50,000 in legal costs, to the woman who had filed the sexual harassment complaint against the driver.
The judge had also termed as 'unjustified' Ola’s refusal to act on the complaint based on the claim that drivers are not employees under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (PoSH Act).
Subsequently, the company filed a writ appeal challenging the ruling of the single judge, which required Ola to address complaints of sexual harassment involving its drivers.
During the hearing on Friday, senior advocate Dhyan Chinnappa, representing Ola, argued that the earlier judgment had erred in establishing an employer-employee relationship.
He contended that drivers merely use Ola’s platform to offer cab services and are not direct employees of the company.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
UP: Misled by GPS navigation, car falls into river from partially constructed bridge, 3 dead
Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.
The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.
"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.
The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.
There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.
Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.
The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.
— Bareilly Police (@bareillypolice) November 24, 2024
