Supreme Court: In an appeal by the Government of NCT of Delhi and its transport department challenging two interim orders passed by Delhi High Court on 26-05-2023 permitting plying of two-wheelers for carrying passengers under a regime operated through aggregators, the Division Bench of Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal, JJ. reinstated the stay on operation of aggregators facilitating two-wheelers in Delhi until a specific policy was brought up by the government.
The Government of NCT of Delhi had banned the use of private two-wheeler vehicles for carrying passengers on hire or reward through notification dated 19-02-2023. When the same was challenged by Uber and Rapido before the Division Bench of Delhi High Court, which stayed the effect of the said notification.
The main challenge in the instant matter was that two-wheelers were being facilitated without proper license or permit, and it was contended that plying of such non-transport vehicles for hire or reward was in violation of the condition of registration under Section 93 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Since the Government and Transport Department submitted that a policy was under active consideration for giving licenses to aggregators both in respect of four-wheeler and two-wheeler vehicles, the Court therefore stayed the notice and clarified that the stay was operative till the final notification. The Court also kept the doors open by stating that even after the final policy was notified and the petitioners were still aggrieved, they may take necessary steps before the appropriate forum.
The Court proceeded in the instant matter with the view that “it is within the legislative competence of the State to prescribe conditions for obtaining license as an aggregator as stipulated in Section 93 of the 1988 Act.”
The respondents relied on Uber India Systems (P) Ltd. v. Union of India, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 901 and Roppen Transportation Services (P) Ltd. v. Union of India, (2023) 4 SCC 349 considering the question of operation of the aggregators without a license under Section 93 of MV Act. The Court observed that neither of the two decisions held or observed that the aggregators could continue to operate without a license under Section 93 of the MV Act. The Court further mentioned that in Uber India Systems (supra), an interim order dated 21-04-2022 was extended till 20-04-2023 enabling the operators to apply for license.
The Court highlighted that in the instant matter, the government notification prohibited operation of two-wheelers for transport of passengers and not four-wheeler vehicles. The Court viewed that “Solely on consideration of balance of convenience, such interim stay on a public notice ought not to have been granted.” The Court therefore directed a permanent stay on operation of the impugned High Court orders. The Court expressed that “We have no doubt that on formulation of the Policy, each application for license/permit in respect of two-wheelers to be operated through the regime of aggregators, shall be dealt with expeditiously in a time-bound manner.”
[State (NCT of Delhi) v. Roppen Transportation Services (P) Ltd., 2023 SCC OnLine SC 902, Order dated 12-06-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioners: Senior Advocate Manish Vashisht, Advocate on Record Jyoti Mendiratta, Additional Standing Counsel (Civil) Samir Vashisht, Advocate Rikky Guptaa, Advocate Aman Singh Bhadoria, Advocate Vanshay Kaul, Advocate Ravindra Pal Singh, Advocate Vedansh Vashisht, Advocate Aviral Tripathi;
For Respondents: Senior Advocate Siddharth Bhatnagar, Advocate Hardeep Sachdeva, Advocate Abhishek Awasthi, Advocate Kamal Shankar, Advocate Advocate Parag Maini, Advocate Raghav Chadha, Advocate Advocate on Record Nishtha Kumar, Advocate Abhyudai Singh, Advocate Kshitiz Rao, Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Advocate Mahesh Agarwal, Advocate Rishi Agrawala, Advocate Manu Krishnan, Advocate Pranjit Bhattacharya, Advocate Madhavi Agarwal, Advocate Toshiv Goyal, Advocate Ira Mahajan, Advocate on Record E.C. Agrawala, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, Advocate on Record Gurmeet Singh Makker, Advocate Siddantha Dharamadhikari, Advocate Padmesh Mishra, Advocate Arkaj Kumar, Advocate Sumit Jidani, Advocate Anoop Bose, Advocate on Record Nishta Kumar.