In a recent development, the Karnataka High Court on Friday placed a stay on its previous directive which required ANI Technologies, the parent company of Ola Cabs, to compensate a woman with Rs 5.5 lakh for experiencing sexual harassment by one of its drivers.
The stay, issued by Justices S R Krishna Kumar and M G Uma, halts the enforcement of the judgment from September 30, which had been decreed by Justice M G S Kamal. The case will be revisited on October 28 for further proceedings.
This legal battle began when a female passenger, traveling to her office in Bengaluru via an Ola cab in August 2018, reported distressing behavior by the cab driver. According to the complaint, the driver not only stared at her through the rearview mirror but also displayed an obscene video on his phone within her view. The incident led the woman to file a police complaint and subsequently seek legal redress under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, commonly referred to as the POSH Act.
The initial ruling had acknowledged that the contractual agreement between Ola and the driver aligned with the POSH Act’s definition of an employee, thereby warranting appropriate compensation for the complainant. The court had also ordered Ola’s Internal Complaints Committee to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident and report back within 90 days.
However, the recent challenge in the High Court by Ola’s legal team contested the notion that the drivers should be considered employees under the POSH Act, arguing that Ola does not hold an employer-employee relationship with its drivers.
As the matter stands postponed to late October, the court will further examine the implications of the employment status of drivers under the POSH Act and Ola’s responsibilities in such cases.
