KUALA LUMPUR: The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) described a legal action against it over Uber and two other ride-hailing services as frivolous, vexatious, scandalous, and an abuse of court process.
This was revealed yesterday through a copy of SPAD's application to strike out the lawsuit by 102 cabbies who are seeking to force the commission to ban Uber, Grabcar and Blacklane.
SPAD said the suit is unsustainable as its actions - done reasonably and in good faith pursuant to its duties - are protected by Section 258 of the Land Public Transport Act 2010.
The commission alleged that the taxi drivers going ahead with the lawsuit despite the clear provisions of Section 258 showed that the legal process had been used in a way that is not "bona fide"(good faith).
SPAD said the lawsuit failed to disclose a reasonable cause of action as the taxi drivers failed to prove there existed any contract between the commission and the cabbies.
SPAD said it owed no contractual obligation to the taxi drivers as its duty was only to issue license to those handling public transportation.
The commission also claimed that the cabbies’ writ of summons was the wrong mode of initiating the legal action as they should have filed a judicial review application instead.
SPAD said this is because the action of a public body such as itself could only be challenged via judicial review application.
Yesterday, the cabbies' legal action came up for case management before High Court senior assistant registrar Ti Pei Si.
The taxi drivers' lawyer R. Kengadharan said that his clients had on June 24 filed their reply to the striking-out application, and that the court yesterday set July 12 as deadline for SPAD to file its reply to his clients' reply.
He said the court set July 28 for case management. Counsel Mohd Shahril Madisa and Mohamed Nazmie Mohd Rozli appeared for Uber and SPAD, respectively.
On Dec 31 last year, the taxi drivers filed the legal action, seeking a declaration that ride sharing services Uber, Grabcar and BlackLane were illegal.
They also seek general damages, interest, costs and other relief deemed fit by the court.