SC Requests Position from the Center Regarding Delhi Government’s Dispute Against HC Order Staying Notice to Rapido, Uber

The Delhi government has appealed a high court decision that suspended a notice to bike-taxi aggregators Rapido and Uber and allowed them to continue operating till the final policy has been issued. The Supreme Court has asked the Centre for its position on this.

Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal, who were sitting on vacation, ordered that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta get a copy of the applications. Let the Solicitor General get copies of both petitions so that the Union of India’s opinions might be taken into consideration. Monday,” the bench declared.

Senior attorney Manish Vashisht had claimed that the high court’s decision to postpone the government’s notice till the final policy is announced amounted to a virtual approval of Rapido’s writ suit.

On May 26, the high court ordered that no coercive action should be taken against the bike-taxi aggregator until the final policy was declared in response to Rapido’s petition contesting a statute that prohibits two-wheelers from being registered as transport vehicles.

The high court said in its listing of Rapido’s plea before the registrar for completion of pleading on August 22 that “The counsel for the petitioners (Rapido) submits that policy is under active consideration.” “In light of this, we thus stay the notice and specify that the stay will be in effect until the final policy is announced. The petitioners are free to file action before the proper venue, the high court said, if they are still unhappy when the final policy is announced.

The Delhi government order directing Rapido to immediately stop operating non-transport two-wheelers from carrying passengers on a hire-and-reward basis or for commercial purposes, according to Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited’s petition before the high court, was passed without any justification or rationale.

The government had issued a public notice earlier this year cautioning bike-taxis against operating in Delhi and announcing that violators might face fines of up to Rs 1 lakh.

In this regard, Rapido has also contested a show-cause notice that the municipal administration issued to it, claiming that it violates several basic and constitutional rights and was enacted against the rules of natural justice.

“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.

Additionally, it said that the local government’s actions were against the Motor Vehicles Act’s meaning and purpose as well as the 2020 Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines (MoRTH Guidelines), which regulate the issue of licenses to aggregators.

“The transportation department has not yet established its own rules on the use of two-wheelers that are not intended for transportation as transportation vehicles for the purposes of aggregation and ride-sharing/ride-pooling. In order to further the goals of the federal and state governments of reducing traffic congestion and automobile pollution and achieving effective asset utilization, MoRTH Guidelines expressly permitted vehicle pooling in non-transport vehicles, according to the petition.

Additionally, it said that a total prohibition on the petitioner’s services would negatively affect the lives and means of support for a sizable number of everyday commuters, car owners, and passengers.