'Why Are You Piggybacking Uber?' : Supreme Court Refuses To Allow Rapido's Intervention Plea, Asks It To Move Bombay HC

The bike-taxi aggregator, Roppen Transportation Services Pvt Ltd (Rapido), approached the Supreme Court of India in an intervention application in Uber's challenge to March 7, 2022 order of the Bombay High Court which directed that cab aggregators should comply with Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines 2020. The Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala, however, asked Rapido to approach the Bombay High Court with its grievance.

Appearing for Rapido, Advocate Fereshte Sethna submitted–

"My concern is this – I have an effective application for licence which has been wrongfully rejected. My operations have been disrupted. Therefore, I was seeking to be equated with the Ubers of the world. All aggregators must be treated on equal footing ultimately, whether I am a two wheeler, three-wheeler or four-wheeler."

However, CJI DY Chandrachud, unconvinced with entertaining the application said–

"Go to the Bombay High Court. Why are you piggy backing Uber? You can follow your remedies before the Bombay High Court. You show our order, you apply for a license, you will be governed by the same order. In fact our order is fairly broad, it is not confined to Uber."

CJI DY Chandrachud was referring to today's order in which the Supreme Court bench had allowed Uber to make a representation to the State of Maharashtra to ventilate its grievance concerning license requirement for aggregators and had also asked the State government to expeditiously frame the guidelines for aggregators.

Advocate Sethna requested the bench to clarify that even Rapido was eligible to apply for license, like Uber. However, CJI DY Chandrachud said–

"You are not a substantive petitioner before us. We cannot make a call like this and an intervention application. Approach the High Court."

Just last week, the Apex Court while hearing Rapido's plea against the Maharashtra government's refusal to grant two-wheeler bike taxi aggregator license to the company had asked the petitioner to pursue its remedies before the Bombay High Court.