Supreme Court puts interim stay on the order of Delhi High Court, allowing to operate bike taxis without license in Delhi

Today, the Supreme Court of India stayed the Delhi High Court Order allowing bike-taxi aggregators to operate bike taxis without license in Delhi till policy for the same is defined by the Delhi Government. The vacation bench further recorded the statement of the Senior Advocate Manish Vashisht appearing for the Delhi Government ensured to place the concerned policy and operate the licensing regime by July 31, 22023. The Supreme Court apprised that policy (Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator Scheme, 2023) has been drafted by the Delhi Government and public notices have been invited to participate and give objections till June 24. The vacation bench ordered, “Under these circumstances, in our opinion, an interim order staying the whole scale operation of a statutory regime till the finalization of policy was unwarranted and we stay both the impugned orders passed by the Delhi High Court.” 

During the proceedings, the Delhi Government argued that Uber and Rapido continue to use non-transport vehicles for the purpose of ride pooling and aggregation, which is impermissible under the Motor Vehicles Act without obtaining valid permits. To this, Senior Advocate appearing for Uber, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, argued that there is no such prohibition under the statute. Moreover, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain said, “The Central Government guidelines have been issued to facilitate the State Government because it is a State subject. License is of ours the sine qua non. No doubt about that. Kindly see the definition of license.” In addition to this, the bench while replying to the Maharashtra case said, “License is at two stages, by owner and aggregators. The permit is absent at both stages in this case. How can you override the statute which mandates the same?” After hearing the contentions, the bench decided to stay the interim order passed by the Delhi High Court allowing bike-taxi aggregators to operate two-wheeler taxis without license in Delhi.