The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that two-wheeler taxis cannot function in Delhi until a policy is in place, dealing a major blow to bike-taxi aggregators such as Rapido, Ola, and Uber.
The Delhi government appealed to the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court ruled on March 26 that no coercive action should be taken against bike taxi operators until the government adopts the necessary regulations controlling two-wheeler taxi operators. It had filed two appeals against the HC decision.
According to Delhi government's plea order, "Plying of the bike taxis by the respondents cannot, among other reasons, be permitted without complying with conditions like police verification, obligations of installing GPS devices, panic buttons, etc, to ensure road safety and safety of the passengers,"
The administration has recently stated that it will develop a strategy for non-transport two-wheelers by June 30.
Earlier this year, the authorities issued a warning to Ola and Rapido, alleging that using two-wheelers for business reasons violated the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988. The case was heard at the Supreme Court by a vacation bench led by Justice Aniruddha Bose.