Top court extends deadline on bike-taxi aggregator policy

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New Delhi, August 14

The Supreme Court on Monday extended till September 30 the time given to Delhi Government to formulate the Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme to regulate bike-taxi aggregators in the national Capital.

A Bench led by Justice Aniruddha Bose allowed the Delhi government’s plea for extension of time after its counsel said formulation of a robust policy was underway but it will take some time.

Bike-taxi aggregators Rapido and Uber can’t offer their services in the national Capital for now as the Supreme Court on June 12 stayed the Delhi High Court’s order that allowed them to operate till a new policy was formulated, terming it “unwarranted”.

The stay order had come on the Delhi Government’s petition challenging the May 26 order of the Delhi High Court 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 action against the aggregators in the meantime.

It had 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 SC had, 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 government contended that the bike-taxi aggregators were operating without proper licenses 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.

Uber has submitted 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, the Centre has submitted that its guidelines were issued to facilitate and enable state governments to formulate their own policies for grant of licences.

Tells delhi govt to frame it by Sept 30

The top court was hearing two separate petitions by the Delhi Government challenging the high court order that no action should be taken against the bike-taxi aggregators until the final policy was notified