The Supreme Court hit pause on a High Court decision on Monday that basically gave the green light to bike-taxi apps like Rapido and Uber to operate in Delhi. They told the Delhi government to chill and not to mess with them until they’ve made a new policy. The judges, Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal, were like, “Cool, you guys can ask for an urgent hearing if you need to.”
So they paused this decision that came through on May 26. The Delhi government said they’ll have their new policy ready by the end of July. The Supreme Court was dealing with two requests by the AAP government who weren’t vibing with the High Court’s decision to give the bike-taxi apps a free pass until the new policy is rolled out.
Last week, the Supreme Court was like, “Hey, what do you guys think?” to the Centre, about the Delhi government’s requests. Manish Vashisht, who was representing the Delhi government, felt the High Court’s decision to let Rapido do its thing until the final policy is announced is basically letting Rapido have its way.
Back on May 26, when Rapido was like, “Hey, this law that stops bikes from being registered as transport vehicles isn’t cool,” the High Court told the Delhi government not to bother Rapido until they’ve got their final policy sorted. The High Court has set Rapido’s plea for August 22.
Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, the company running Rapido, said the Delhi government was tripping when they told them to stop their non-transport bikes from carrying passengers for money. They said it didn’t make sense. The government warned bike taxis to stay off Delhi streets earlier this year and if they didn’t, they could cop a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh. Stay tuned!