Uber Lands in Trouble, Police To Take Legal Action Against it

Police on Sunday arrested a suspect in the alleged rape of a customer by her Uber driver in New Delhi. The suspect named Shiv Kumar Yadav was held in his home town in Uttar Pradesh where his car was earlier found abandoned and will be brought before a New Delhi court today.

Madhur Verma, New Delhi police deputy commissioner, said that police will now also take legal action against Uber for violations including the failure to check whether the driver, named as Shiv Kumar Yadav, had a clean police record and the lack of a satellite location device in his car.

“Every violation by Uber will be evaluated and we will go for legal recourse,” he said. He said police would take legal advice before opting to press a criminal or civil case. However, according to the police sources a case of negligence can be registered against the cab company.

Read the complete story on what happened here.  

Though going through Uber’s Terms & Conditions, we found that the company doesn’t protect passengers from all this,

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT UBER DOES NOT PROVIDE TRANSPORTATION OR LOGISTICS SERVICES OR FUNCTION AS A TRANSPORTATION CARRIER. UBER’S SERVICES MAY BE USED BY YOU TO REQUEST AND SCHEDULE TRANSPORTATION OR LOGISTICS SERVICES WITH THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS, BUT YOU AGREE THAT UBER HAS NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY TO YOU RELATED TO ANY TRANSPORTATION OR LOGISTICS PROVIDED TO YOU BY THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICES OTHER THAN AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH IN THESE TERMS.

UBER DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE SUITABILITY, SAFETY OR ABILITY OF THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS. IT IS SOLELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DETERMINE IF A THIRD PARTY PROVIDER WILL MEET YOUR NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS. UBER WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND A THIRD PARTY PROVIDER. BY USING THE SERVICES, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU MAY BE EXPOSED TO SITUATIONS INVOLVING THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS THAT ARE POTENTIALLY UNSAFE, OFFENSIVE, HARMFUL TO MINORS, OR OTHERWISE OBJECTIONABLE, AND THAT USE OF THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS ARRANGED OR SCHEDULED USING THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND JUDGMENT. UBER SHALL NOT HAVE ANY LIABILITY ARISING FROM OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO YOUR TRANSACTIONS OR RELATIONSHIP WITH THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS.

In this particular case, the police will be investigating whether Uber followed the safety guidelines that it states, including the background checks, location-tracking functionality etc. Though as reported earlier, the correct details of the driver were missing as the suspect’s phone was not registered in his own name, neither did he have a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence issued by the Delhi Transport Authority, which is mandatory for all drivers plying commercial vehicles and there was no mandatory GPS installed in the car.

Well this wasn’t the first time that a situation like this has arisen. In the past, an Uber driver in Washington D.C. was arrested for a rape case against a passenger and earlier this year an Uber driver was found guilty of fondling a female passenger.