Rapido Moves Supreme Court Against Bombay HC Order to Stop Operations in Maharashtra

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on January 23 plea of Rapido, the bike taxi and auto aggregator, challenging the Bombay High Court order which directed it to stop operation in Maharashtra immediately as it does not have a license to operate bike taxi or rickshaw services.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud agreed to list the matter for Monday after it was mentioned before it.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the matter for urgent hearing and said the company has thousands of employees.

The Bombay High Court last week directed Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which operates bike taxi aggregator Rapido, to shut operations immediately as the startup is yet to receive a licence to operate from the Maharashtra government. Accordingly, the bike taxi aggregator Rapido was to close down all its services till January 20.

The High Court pulled up a Pune-based bike taxi aggregator for operating without procuring a licence from the Maharashtra government and directed it to suspend the services immediately.

Roppen Transportation moved the High Court against a communication issued to it by the Maharashtra government on December 29, 2022, refusing to grant them a bike taxi aggregator licence.

The government cited the reason that there was no state policy on licensing of bike taxis and there was no fare structure policy.

The State government has told the High Court that a committee has been set up to explore the formulation of guidelines for bike taxis in the State.