Maharashtra: Rapido suspends its operations in state after Bombay High Court issues order

After the Bombay High Court ordered Rapido to suspend all of its services in Maharashtra by 1 p.m. Friday because it didn't have the required licences, the bike taxi aggregator told the court that it had complied with the order and that its app was no longer in operation in the state.

Rapido had challenged the Maharashtra government for refusing it a licence to operate two-wheeler bike taxis in the state. According to reports, the Maharashtra government told the aggregator that the state had not yet created a policy to enable bike taxis and that there was no pricing structure regulation in place.

When the court informed Rapido that it did not have a licence to operate any of the services (bike taxi, autorickshaw, or food delivery), a division bench of Justices GS Patel and SG Dige told the company that if they did not shut down their services by 1 p.m., the petition would be dismissed with costs. Rapido has been ordered by the court to suspend its services until January 20.

Rapido later informed the court that it had complied with its order. Previously, the court had requested that the Maharashtra government seriously consider a proposal to licence bike taxis.

Appearing for the government, advocate general Birendra Saraf told the court on Tuesday that, at present, bike taxis are not allowed to ply as the government has not issued any policy or guidelines for the same.

The AG also informed the court that a committee has been set up to explore the formulation of guidelines for bike taxis in the state. He also stated that prosecution against entities such as Uber that operate bike taxis had begun.

The court then ordered the government that it "cannot keep the issue hanging over the fire and has to take a decision immediately."