Rapido moves Supreme Court challenging interim ban by Bombay High Court on its services in Maharashtra

Bike taxi aggregator company, Rapido moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday challenging the Bombay High Court directive that it stop operations in Maharashtra immediately since it does not have a license to operate bike taxis or rickshaw services. .The matter was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud who agreed to hear the matter on January 23, Monday.Appearing for Rapido, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi told the Court,"I have thousands of employees. I was asked to submit that we will stop operations. This is urgent ... We are like Uber only. This Court had protected Uber also.""Tell the High Court we will hear it. We will take it up on Monday," CJI Chandrachud said, in response..Last week, Rapido had given an undertaking before the Bombay High Court that it would suspend all its services in Maharashtra till January 20. This undertaking was given after the High Court warned that if the company did suspend its services immediately, the Court would issue directions to permanently prohibit the company from getting any license.There is no licensing regime in place currently in Maharashtra with respect to bike taxis, owing to which the bike aggregator also does not hold a license for its operations in the State. 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 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 warned the company of adverse action if the same was not halted. The company then told the High Court that it will halt its services.