In a recent rather upsetting development, Uber has filed for the dismissal of the lawsuit against it by the alleged Delhi rape victim. The 27 year old woman had filed a case in US court against Uber to seek justice for the unacceptable incident, but Uber replied saying,
“While Plaintiff undoubtedly can state a claim against her alleged assailant, she cannot state a claim against Uber US, which is the wrong party. Nor does California law govern a dispute involving an alleged wrong committed by one Indian citizen against another Indian citizen, in India.”
Pre-rape incident, Uber, a Netherland entity that provides the service of hailing a cab easy had certainly made commuting in and around 35 cities click-easy. Since it’s inception in 2009 in San Francisco, Uber rose to heights that none would’ve have ever predicted. It was valued at $3.76 billion in 2014 having less than 100 employees, Google Ventures, impressed picked up a stake to enjoy the upside. In one public statement, an angel investor exclaimed, “Uber is growing faster than eBay did … it is probably the fastest growing company that we’ve ever had.”
However the fall of the giant has hit the roads, especially in India with it’s name tainted and operations frozen after what happened in Delhi. After the rape incident, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick had said, “Our entire team’s hearts go out to the victim of this despicable crime. We will do everything, I repeat, everything to help bring this perpetrator to justice and to support the victim and her family in her recovery.”
What came into light during the probe was horrifying. The cab didn’t have a GPS tracker and the driver, in the first place, did not even possess a license. It showed how Uber had failed to conduct a background check of it’s drivers. Uber blatantly hired this man who was a repeat offender and was also involved in a rape case in 2011 for which he spent 7 months in jail.
And now Uber wants the lawsuit to be dismissed giving an insensitive remark just to have it’s operations resumed. After the rape incident, Uber has assured it’s customers utter safety and has installed safety measures such as “panic button” in it’s cabs. The background check of each one of it’s drivers have been conducted since, but the travesty the rape incident caused, Uber can’t in no way win back the trust after showing such grotesque disregard for the victim’s plight.
In order to flee from the situation, it pointed to it’s service terms and conditions telling that Uber can’t be made responsible for it’s driver’s act as given in it’s service agreement:
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 judgement.
Now that this technicality was used, the ruling in favor of the victim is doubtful in the court, but the people’s verdict has come out loud and clear in favor of the victim so much so that Uber recently reduced it’s fares to Rs.3.5 per km, and still there are hardly any takers.
This shrugging of their responsibility is definitely not going to go down well with Indians!
[…] Uber has shrugged their responsibility in the rape case incident has said that they are in no way responsible for any actions carried out by an Indian citizen against another Indian citizen. […]
This is Amit from Image Public Relations. Wanted to share a story idea for one of my technology clients. Can you share your mobile number on email. Thanks in advance.