HC rejects firm's plea challenging govt order refusing license to ply bike taxis

The Bombay High Court on Friday rejected a petition filed by Roppen Transportation Services also known as Rapido challenging an order passed by the Maharashtra government refusing to grant it license to ply bike taxisA division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and S G Dige said it found no merits in the petition of the bike taxi aggregator firmWe fail to see how any aggregator like the petitioner can lay claim to be allowed to operate bike taxi services without license or without compliance of the guidelines issued by the Union government the court saidAlso read Custodial death one of the worst crimes in civilised society says HC asks Maha govt to pay Rs 15 lakh relief to victims motherThe court further said the petitioner company had failed to demonstrate that want of a policy on a bike taxi scheme was an insufficient ground to reject their application for licenseWe are not satisfied that only for want of a policy the license was rejected We see no merit in the petition We reject the petition There will be no order as to costiquest the court observed in its orderRoppen Transportation Services Private Limited Rapido had moved HC against a communication issued to it by the Pune Regional Transport Office RTO on December 29 2022 refusing them a bike taxi aggregator licenseIn its letter the RTO said there was no state policy on licensing of bike taxis or fare structureThe HC in its order rejecting the petition noted it would not be correct to say the rejection to grant the petitioner company license was solely due to absence of license It said there were discrepancies in the petitioners application to the government seeking licenseAdvocate General Birendra Saraf on Friday pointed out to the court the Maharashtra government had on January 19 issued a notification expressly prohibiting the use of nontransport vehicles including two three and four wheelers for the purpose of aggregationThe notification cited public safety as one of the grounds for the prohibition The decision was taken after a committee set up by the state government conducted a study to recommend guidelines for aggregators Saraf told courtThe reason for rejection by the Pune RTO included noncompliance of requirements necessary for getting license he told courtSaraf also pointed out the petitioner firm had been operating their vehicle taxis two three and four wheeler without any licenseThe company had made a statement in High Court on January 13 that it will suspend all its services in Maharashtra till January 20The order was challenged before the Supreme Court which kept it for hearing on MondayWhen the HC queried as to how the January 13 order could be challenged when the company itself made the statement senior counsel Aspi Chinoy appearing for the company told the court the present petition before HC was limited only to Pune but it was constrained to make the statement that it would suspend its services all over MaharashtraChinoy specified the ambit of the SLP was only regarding an all Maharashtra wide restraint even if this was made on the statement of the petitionerThe firm requested the High Court to consider its petition only on the aspect of the rejection by RTO PuneAfter hearing both sides the HC said it failed to see how Rapido could be allowed to operate without a licenseAs per the government notification submitted to the court on Friday the government considers it expedient to prohibit the pooling of nontransport vehicles by aggregators in order to ensure road safety of the general public and passengers at large in MaharashtraThe notification said it is observed that use of nontransport vehicles including two wheelers three wheelers and four wheelers as transport vehicles is on the rise enormously and raises serious practical and security concerns of the passengers and which may cause serious threat to the road safety of general public and passengers at largeThe issue of whether nontransport vehicles can be permitted to be used as transport vehicles including for aggregation and ride pooling requires detailed consideration regarding terms and conditions framework and guidelines the state notification further saidSaraf earlier told HC the government has also issued show cause notices to Uber in relation to their ongoing bike tax operations in the stateThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever