Supreme Court declines relief in appeal by Rapido against refusal of bike taxi licence in Maharashtra

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused relief in an the appeal filed by bike taxi aggregator company, Rapido against the Maharashtra government's refusal to grant two-wheeler bike taxi aggregator license to the company (Roppen Transportation Services Pvt Ltd & Anr vs State of Maharashtra & Ors)fo.A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala said that amendments made to the Motor Vehicles Act in 2019 make it clear that aggregators cannot operate without a valid licence."Marginal note to Section 93 was substituted by the amending statute prior to which it was titled agent or canvassor of services. The effect of amended provision is that no person can engage himself as an aggregator without a license from such authority and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by State government," the Court said.In case of Rapido, the Court observed that the Pune RTO had rejected its plea for licence in December 2022.However, while hearing an appeal against the same, the Bombay High Court had noted that there was absence of policy as regards licensing of bike taxis in the State. Subsequently, the State had constituted a committee comprising senior IAS and government officers to look into the same and the State had come up with a notification on January 19 prohibiting the use of non-transport vehicles for the purpose of aggregation. The Supreme Court said that the correctness of Pune RTO order stands subsumed by wider decision of State to have a committee examine the issue.Hence, the top court refused to grant relief to Rapido but granted the company liberty to move the Bombay High Court under Article 226 to challenge January 19 notification issued by the State of Maharashtra.The High Court shall consider such challenge un-influenced by the earlier order, the Court added..In January this year, the Bombay High Court had dismissed a petition filed by Rapido against the State government's refusal to grant a two-wheeler bike taxi aggregator license to the company. This led to the present appeal before the Supreme Court. In a communication dated December 29, 2022, the State government had stated that there is no State policy on licensing of bike taxies and that there is no fare structure policy for bike taxies. Citing this, the State had refused to grant a license to Rapido.Rapido had then moved the Bombay High Court challenging the State government's refusal to grant the two-wheeler bike taxi aggregator a license. The High Court had initially taken a favourable view of Rapido's predicament and had asked the State to frame a policy for licensing such aggregators.The High Court had, on January 2, asked the State to consider the benefits of having two-wheeler transport and opined that there is nothing to stop the State from framing a policy.However, on being informed that Rapido was continuing to ply its taxis without a license in Maharashtra, it had warned the company of adverse action if the same was not halted.Rapido had then given an undertaking before the High Court that it would suspend all its services in Maharashtra till January 20.Subsequently, the High Court rejected Rapido's petition after the State government came up with a notification on January 19. .Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta along with advocates Siddharth Dharmadhikari & Abhikalp Pratap Singh appeared for the State of Maharashtra.