Authorities in Delhi warn they will impound bike taxis if Uber, Ola and Rapido do not comply with ban

The authorities in the capital city of New Delhi have warned they will start impounding bike taxis of cab companies such as Uber, Ola and Rapido if they do not cease operations, according to a Reuters report.

The warning comes a day after Supreme Court backed the Delhi government's ban on bike taxis. The government is of the view that bike taxis violate local city laws while cab aggregators have argued that the ban hurts the livelihood of its drivers.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The apex court on Monday overturned a Delhi High Court decision that allowed Rapido and Uber to continue operating without aggregator licenses up until a final policy had been announced.

Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal of the vacation bench heard the case and overturned the HC order. The bench, however, gave the liberty to bike-taxi aggregators to request an urgent hearing of their pleas by the Delhi HC.

Senior Partner, AZB & Partners representingRapidoAbhishek Awasthi said, "A vacation bench of the Supreme Court has stayed the Delhi High Court's Order dated May 26, 2023, which, inter alia, stayed the operation of the public notice issued by the Delhi Government on February 19, 2023, with a direction to Delhi High Court to decide the matter pending before it expeditiously. Roppen has already applied for an Aggregator License under the MORTH Guidelines issued in 2020 under Section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 to the Delhi Government, since the Delhi Government has not framed any guidelines tilldate. Non transport vehicles (including two wheelers) are permitted to provide ride pooling under the MORTH Guidelines. The current draft guidelines issued by Delhi Government under Section 93, inter alia, permits the operation of bike taxi in GNCT of Delhi and also recognises the existing aggregators and further allows them to apply for license within given timeframe.”

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has assured that it will be framing guidelines and licensing policies for the bike aggregators by the end of July to regulate operations.

Delhi government's ban

Earlier this year in February, the Delhi government, bringing down the sledgehammer, banned two-wheeler cab services provided by ride-hailing firms.

The Delhi Transport Department issued a public notice stating that using private two-wheelers to carry passengers for hire violates Indian law. It said the bike taxis were operating without proper licenses or permits as required under Section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act. It added that non-transport two-wheelers should not be used as taxis without a policy in place.

Watch |WION Climate Tracker | Math teacher from India's Kashmir builds solar car from scratch

“It has come to light that that bike taxi service provided by Uber, Ola and Rapido have violated transport rules. Hence, the service has been by the city's transport department,” it said in the notice.

“It has been brought to the notice that two-wheelers having non-transport (private) registration mark/numbers are being used to carry passengers on hire which is purely commercial operation and a violation of Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.”

Apart from Delhi, the transport department of states such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have also passed similar regulations and impounded bike taxi aggregators in the absence of a proper policy.

According to a report published by Allied Market Research last year, India's motorbike taxi market was valued at $ 50.5 million and was expected to reach around $1.5 billion by 2030.

While the tussle between the cab operators and the government lengthens, the customers are the worst hit who had an affordable alternative to bridge the last-mile connectivity.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE: