BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday ordered notice to ANI Technologies Private Limited (Ola) on a plea filed by a 22-year-old woman from the city seeking directions to the company to take action against its driver.

According to the complaint, the driver was allegedly watching pornographic video while driving and simultaneously masturbating.Justice Alok Aradhe issued notice to Ola, Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Commissioner of Transport. The victim appealed to the court to issue directions to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), ANI Technologies Private Limited (Ola) to inquire into her complaint dated September 30, 2018 as per the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

Narrating her ordeal, the victim stated that when she boarded a taxi at 6.30am on August 23, 2018, she was horrified to realise that the the driver was watching a pornographic video on his phone and had intentionally held the phone in a manner to ensure that the video was visible to her. Thereafter, she also noticed that the driver was not only watching the video while driving but was simultaneously masturbating.

Frightened, she repeatedly requested the driver to stop the vehicle, but he flatly refused. Upon reaching her office, she lodged a complaint with the help of a colleague against the driver on the Ola platform. A few hours, later, she received a call from Ola informing her that the Suggested Driver had been 'blacklisted' and would be sent for 'counselling and training'.

Thereafter, she received calls from Ola seeking permission to close the complaint, in spite of her request that substantive action be taken against the driver.Hence, she filed a complaint against the driver with the Cubbon Park Police Station on August 25, 2018.

Driver Swapping

On September 7, 2018, the victim and OLA's law enforcement team were contacted by Cubbon Park police to identify the driver. She identified him and recorded her statement before the police. OLA's representatives identified the driver and said he was not the driver who was registered with them. They said it was an incident of driver-swapping. They added that most cases filed against OLA were instances of sexual harassment due to such swapping. OLA replied that it did not have jurisdiction to take cognizance of the complaint as its drivers independent contractors.