by Peerzada Arshad Hamid
NEW DELHI, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Tanmoy Sharma has booked a bike taxi from Jangpura area to reach his place of work in the congested Lajpat Nagar in India's capital city New Delhi.
Sharma has been availing the service for a long time. He is one of thousands of residents in the metropolis using the services of app-based aggregators like Uber, Ola and Rapido on a daily basis to commute.
"I use it for it is quick and cheap options compared to others available such as taxis and autorickshaw," Sharma said, adding that "the best part is one doesn't get stuck in the traffic jams. The rider sneaks his way through narrow gaps and takes you to the destination."
However, Sharma is unaware that the service stands banned in his city. "Really, is it banned?" he said with a grimace. He immediately took out his mobile phone and opened the Uber app with a slight touch on the screen. "But then how is the service available on the mobile app," he asked.
In February this year, a public notice from the Delhi transport department said using two-wheelers with private registration to carry out commercial activities was a violation of rules and hence liable to punishment.
The notice classified the offense into three different stages of severity. The initial offense could entail a fine of 60 U.S. dollars. For repeating, there could be a penalty of 120 dollars and imprisonment of up to one year besides a three-month suspension of the driving license.
The notice further warned that digital platforms, which facilitate such operations through app-based services, thereby engaging themselves as aggregators and violating the law, would face a fine of 1,208 dollars.
The ban was legally challenged by Uber and Rapido in the Delhi high court, which last month stayed the ban. The court directed the transport department not to take any coercive steps against the bike taxi until a policy is framed to govern their operations.
However, the Delhi government challenged the high court ruling in the country's Supreme Court to get the stay order vacated. On Monday, the top court set aside the high court directive thus validating the Delhi transport department's ban on bike taxis.
The Supreme Court said since the Delhi government was currently formulating a policy for granting licenses to taxi aggregators, the high court's ruling was not required.
The Delhi government told the top court that the policy was likely to be implemented by the end of July. The ban order from the Delhi transport department was seen to hit the livelihoods of riders, which the aggregators argued in court.
With the backing from the Supreme Court, local authorities in the capital said it will soon start impounding the bike taxi of app-based aggregator companies in case they were found to violate the order. The enforcement of the law would dent the specific service offered by Uber, Ola and Rapido and in turn, will see many people losing their jobs.
"The news is really disturbing for me," said Mukesh Sahu, a rider affiliated with Uber and Ola. Sahu has signed up with these companies to make his family's ends meet, saying that "if traffic police would start enforcing the law, it would render me jobless."
Sahu is not alone. There are thousands of such riders in the city, working either full-time or part-time with app-based aggregators to make a living. According to the country's Motor Vehicles Act, private vehicles can not be used for carrying out commercial activities. ■