Rapido suspends all services in Maharashtra from 1pm

Rapido announced its bike-taxi service in October in Mumbai and said it planned to get two lakh bike drivers on board to expand its operations.  In November last year, the Mumbai RTO had issued a notice to Rapido asking it to shut its services immediately saying the state government had not yet given it permission to operate.

Last month, the auto rickshaw union in Pune had announced a strike near the city's RTO, to protest against the bike taxis, which they said were operating "illegally" and harming their business. The auto union was demanding that the bike taxis be permanently suspended by the RTO department.

A division bench of Justice SG Dige and GS Patel told Rapido it would dismiss its plea with costs if they did not agree to shut down their services after the bench was informed that the aggregator did not have a licence to operate any of the services.

Advocate General Dr Birendra Saraf said that if the petition has to be entertained, the petitioner is required to shut down its services first. The Advocate General also told informed the court a committee had been set up regarding exploring the forming of guidelines for bike taxis in Maharashtra.

The high court had earlier also said that the state government cannot remain in a limbo regarding taking a decision on the matter.