Rapido's appeal against Maharashtra's ban on bike aggregators is denied by the SC

Posted on 22 February, 2023 by Irika

The Bombay HC ordered Rapido to immediately stop its operations in Maharashtra, as the company does not have a taxi aggregator licence and operates illegally in the state.

The Supreme Court stated that the 2019 amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act make it quite apparent that aggregators must have a current licence in order to function.

The Bombay High Court pulled up Rapido for conducting business without obtaining a licence from the Maharashtra government and ordered it to immediately halt the services. To challenge the HC ruling, the company filed a case to the Supreme Court.

As the state banned the use of non-transportation vehicles for aggregation and ride-pooling (carpooling), citing the safety and security of passengers, the Supreme Court declined relief to Bengaluru-based bike-taxi aggregator Rapido. The Maharashtra government's ban on business motorcycle taxis has been brought up in court by Rapido at the request of the SC.

A division bench of Justice G S Patel and Justice S G Dige held that there was no merit in the plea and rejected the same. The bench observed that“Rapido had failed to show that want of policy of the bike taxi scheme was insufficient ground to reject their application for license”. “It is also not correct in our view, having seen impugned order, to say that rejection was solely for want of bike or taxi guidelines. They were by no means the only factors, there were other discrepancies in the application,”the bench said. The high court said there was no merit in the petition and rejected it.