Karnataka HC stays order declaring Ola’s relationship with drivers as Employer-Employee

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has stayed a single judge verdict, which had classified the relationship between ANI Technologies Private Limited (Ola) and its drivers as that of employer-employee.

The original ruling required Ola to address complaints of sexual harassment involving its drivers.  The interim order that stayed the original judgment was passed by a vacation bench consisting of Justice S R Krishna Kumar and Justice M G Uma, following an appeal by Ola against the earlier judgment dated September 30.

In the original order, the single judge 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 a woman who had filed a complaint of sexual harassment against an Ola driver. The court criticized Ola and its ICC for failing to take appropriate action, citing deliberate negligence.

The single judge had ruled that 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) was ‘unjustified’.  However, senior advocate Dhyan Chinnappa, representing Ola, argued before the division bench 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.