Bike-taxi aggregator Rapido moves Supreme Court against Bombay HC's directive to suspend services in Maharashtra

After suspending its services across Maharashtra following the Bombay High Court's stern warning, bike taxi aggregator company, Rapido, on Tuesday challenged the HC's directive inthe Supreme Court.

According to a report on Bar and Bench portal, the matter was mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud who agreed to hear it on Jan 23.

Last week, the HC pulled up Rapido for operating without a license. Notably, the state has not yet framed a licensing policy for bike taxis.

No policy for bike taxis yet

In 2022, the State Government had refused license to Rapido, stating that currently there is neither licensing nor fare structure policies for bike taxis.

Rapido had challenged the state's stance before the HC, after which the state was asked to frame a policy.

Rapido rapped for operating without license

But when the court came to know that Rapido continued to operate without a license, it asked to suspend the service immediately and submit an undertaking in this regard.

The court warned that if the aggregator failed to comply, it would be permanently prohibited from getting a license.

Supreme Court to hear the case on January 23

Appearing for Rapido, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi told the Supreme Court, “Ihave thousands of employees. I was asked to submit that we will stop operations. This is urgent. We are like Uber only. This court has protected Uber also.”

“Tell the High Court we will hear it. We will take it up on Monday,” CJI Chandrachud said in response.