The Supreme Court on Thursday put on hold a Delhi High Court order that effectively allowed bike-taxi aggregators Uber and Rapido to operate without aggregator licenses till the final policy has been notified by the Delhi government.
Earlier this year, the Delhi transport department had issued a public notice that bike taxis are not allowed in the capital and that app-based aggregators that are running personal bikes as taxis in violation of the Motor Vehicles Act will have to stop the service else they will be fined up to Rs 1 lakh.
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In May 2023, the AAP government filed a plea against the Delhi High Court that had granted permission to the bike-taxi aggregators like Rapido and Uber to operate in the national capital, till proper regulations were drafted by the government to monitor their operations.
In its petition, Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which runs Rapido, has accused Delhi government of issuing the notice to stop plying two wheelers from carrying passengers, without any reason.
“The direction issued by the transport department under the impugned notice is ex-facie arbitrary and passed without following due process under law, without providing any reasons for such prohibition,” the plea said.
Contrary to the state government’s directions with respect to issuance of license to the bike-taxi, the Centre had a different conduct under the Motor vehicle aggregators guidelines, 2020 (MoRTH).
“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.
The state government assured the Supreme court that it will frame policy for the bike-taxis by the end of July.