Bike-taxi aggregators Rapido and Uber can’t operate in Delhi for now
New Delhi, June 12
Bike-taxi aggregators Rapido and Uber can’t offer their services in the national capital for now as the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Delhi High Court’s order that allowed them to operate till a new policy was formulated, terming it “unwarranted”.
A Vacation Bench led by Justice Aniruddha Bose passed the order on the Delhi Government’s petition challenging the May 26 high court order that stayed a notice to Rapido and allowed it to operate till the final policy was notified. The high court had asked the Delhi Government not to take any coercive action against Bike-taxi aggregators in the meantime.
The Bench said a complete stay on the notification that prohibited the operation of bike-taxi aggregators was unwarranted as the Delhi government was in the process of formulating a policy in this regard.
The top court, however, granted liberty to the two aggregators to request the Delhi High Court to urgently take up their plea for hearing. The Delhi Government counsel told the Bench the final policy will be notified before July-end.
The order came on two separate petitions filed by the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP Government challenging the high court’s order not to take any coercive action against the bike-taxi aggregators until the final policy was notified.
On behalf of the Delhi government, senior counsel Manish Vashisht argued that the bike-taxi aggregators were operating without proper licences or permits as required under the Motor Vehicles Act and non-transport two-wheelers should not be used as taxis without until and unless a proper policy in was in place.
Senior counsel NK Kaul, representing Uber, contended that the company had relied on notifications permitting two-wheelers to operate in many states since 2019 and the Delhi Government’s failure to draft a policy should not lead to a ban on the 35,000 existing bike taxis.
Maintaining that licences were mandatory, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain submitted on behalf of the Centre that the Centre’s guidelines were issued to facilitate and enable state governments to formulate their own policies for grant of licences to aggregators.
In February, the app-based aggregators were restrained from plying bike taxis without commercial permits and the Delhi Transport Department warned that any violation will be penalised and the companies defying its orders will be fined up to Rs 1 lakh.
Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which runs Rapido, contended before the HC that the Delhi government order directing it to immediately stop non-transport two-wheelers from carrying passengers on hire-and-reward or for commercial purposes was passed without any reason or rationale.
“MoRTH Guidelines expressly allowed vehicle pooling in non-transport vehicles in furtherance of the central and state governments’ objective of reducing traffic congestion and automobile pollution and achieving effective asset utilisation unless it is prohibited by the state government,” the plea said.
