Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited (RTSPL), which operates the bike taxi service under brand name ‘Rapido’, has given an undertaking in the Bombay High Court that it will suspend its operations in Pune and the entire state of Maharashtra.
The undertaking was given by RTSPL in the High Court during the hearing of its writ petition challenging the Pune Regional Transport Officer’s (RTO) decision to reject Rapido’s application for a bike-taxi and auto-rickshaw aggregator licence.
“In the interim, the Bombay High Court has accepted Roppen’s ‘without prejudice’ undertaking to discontinue operations in the State of Maharashtra, until January 20 2023. All rights, remedies, and contentions of Roppen are kept open to be heard on January 20 2023,” said a statement released by Advocate Fereshte Sethna on Roppen’s behalf.
On December 27, Pune RTO had included names of Rapido’s co-founder and legal advisor in the FIR that was registered in November against the company for “illegally” operating in Pune.
Sections pertaining to cheating, abetting a crime and making insightful statements have also been added to the FIR.
The RTO officials had said in the FIR that despite the RTO rejecting the aggregator licence, Rapido’s officials were making statements on social media that could disturb peace in society. Also, it alleged, that they are instigating use of private vehicles for public transport use and thereby cheating the owners of the vehicles and also the state government by not paying any taxes.
A series of protests have been held by auto-rickshaw unions in the city to demand that Rapido’s bike taxi service be banned in Pune as it was illegal. Autorickshaw drivers are wary of the bike taxi service eating into their business which has suffered over the past few years due to increased competition from mobile phone-based cab booking service as well as the addition of new rickshaws to the road due to reopening of permit issuance in 2017.
