Bombay High Court Directs RTO Pune To Reconsider Rapido’s Application For Bike Taxi Aggregator License
Mubarak Ansari & Sumit Singh
Pune, 1st December 2022: The Bombay High Court has directed the Regional Transport Office (RTO), Pune, to reconsider the application of Rapido’s application for a bike taxi service license.
“The authority shall decide the application of the petitioner on its own merits in accordance with law”, the order states. The court has also set aside RTO’s order dated 20.10.2022 which declared Rapido’s business as illegal.
The order came on November29 based on a writ petition filed by Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which operates Rapido, which is into the business operation of aggregation of passenger transport service by two-wheeler. The petitioner had applied for a grant of license for operation as an aggregator under the Central Motor Vehicle Aggregators Guidelines 2020. However, the said application was rejected.
But Rapido continued to operate the bike taxi service. There was a protest by various autorickshaw unions opposing the illegal service. Two FIRs were registered against Rapido by Pune city police and Pimpri Chinchwad police.
As per the high court order, Rapido was told that the application for a license was rejected as it was not in proper form and that there are compliances to be made. The petitioner on 29.03.2022, made necessary compliances and filed fresh applications giving all the details and also annexed a Demand Draft (DD) of Rs five lakh. RTO encashed the DD but denied receiving a fresh application.
“It is a fact that the Demand Draft of Rs five lakh was submitted on 29.03.2022 and the same was encashed. The only dispute is about the application and the documents. The petitioner shall once again submit the application dated 29.03.2022 with the office of RTO by 01.12.2022. The RTO shall reconsider the entire issue and take a decision afresh, of course, after considering the application and the documents filed by the petitioner and after hearing the petitioner”, states the order of justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice Arif S Doctor.
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