BREAKING| Supreme Court Orders Status Quo On Bombay HC Direction To Uber To Comply With Motor Vehicle Aggregators Guidelines

In an interim relief to Uber India, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed status quo with respect to the March 7 order of the Bombay High Court that the cab aggregators should comply with Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines 2020.

The Aggregator Guidelines were notified by the Central Government in excercise of its powers under Section 93(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988.

A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai passed the order while issuing notice on a special leave petition filed by Uber India Services Private Ltd against the High Court's order.

Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singvhi, appearing for Uber, submitted that the company has serious objections to the validity of the Guidelines. The senior counsel submitted that many of the conditions in the Guidelines are not workable and the issue has been raised before the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Therefore, Uber is yet to apply for license under the Guidelines. However, the High Court passed a direction in a PIL to implement the Guidelines.

"I have serious problems with the validity of their regulations. You pass directions and implement and I can't challenge", Singhvi submitted.

Dr.Singhvi further pointed out that the State Government was yet to finalize its guidelines with respect to cab aggregators and the authorities competent to issue licenses to aggregators were yet to be notified. However, the High Court directed the Transport Department of the State Government to issue appropriate notification in the Official Gazette forthwith and not later than 9th March, 2022 empowering each and every Regional Transport Authority in the State of Maharashtra to act as the Licencing Authority for grant of license under sub-section (1) of section 93 of the Act. The Court also directed that the State Transport Appellate Authority should act as the appellate authority.

"This amounts to an impermissible legislative exercise by the High Court...to notify authorities under the guidelines", Singhvi submitted.

"State government is not doing it, it is in the process of doing it. Can this be done by the High Court?That too in a PIL?", the counsel asked.

The Bench agreed to issue notice and order status quo.

"Notice and status quo. Let them come, that's why we said "status quo". You serve on the other side, we'll list it after 2-3 weeks, serve dasti also", Justice Rao said.

The High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Vinay Joshi had directed that the aggregators must apply for license by March 16 for operating in the State of Maharashtra. On April 6, the HC bench reiterated that the aggregators must strictly follow the Guidelines. The directions were passed in a PIL filed by a person named Savina R. Crasto seeking implemenation of the Guidelines.

Case Title : Uber India Systems Private Ltd and Another versus Union of India and others |SLP(c) No.5705/2022

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