The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre’s stand on the Delhi government’s petition appealing a High Court order suspending a notice to bike-taxi aggregators Rapido and Uber and allowing them to operate till the final policy has been notified.
A vacation bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal posted the matter for hearing on Monday and asked the petitioner to serve a copy of the petition to the Solicitor General of India for the Centre’s stand on the issue. “Let a copy of the petitions be served upon the Solicitor General so that the views of the Union of India can be taken into account. List the case on Monday,” the apex court stated in its order.
During the hearing, the bench asked the Delhi government if it had started a licencing regime for the aggregators and how long it would take.
To this, counsel appearing for the Delhi government replied that it would take a maximum of one month.
The Delhi government has challenged the High Court’s May 26 interim order staying the Delhi Transport Department’s notification to stop plying bike-taxi aggregators through ride-sharing platforms in the national capital.
The Delhi government has sought a hearing, saying that in view of the impugned interim order of the High Court, the respondents Uber and Rapido are continuing the use of non-transport vehicles, including two-wheelers, for the purpose of aggregation and ride pooling, which is impermissible under the Motor Vehicles Act read with the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines 2020, without obtaining valid
permits.
