The Supreme Court on Monday halted the operations of bike-taxi aggregators Uber and Rapido in the national capital till the Delhi government notified the relevant regulations.

A vacation bench of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Rajesh Bindal passed the order while staying a May 26 order of the Delhi High Court that had restrained the AAP government from taking any coercive action against the bike-taxi operators until it had formulated a new policy.

The bench recorded an undertaking from Delhi government counsel Manish Vashisht that the relevant notification and guidelines under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and amended guidelines of 2020 would be notified by July 31 and the applications for permission by the aggregators would be considered in a time-bound manner.

“In our opinion, an interim order staying the wholesale operation of a statutory regime till the finalisation of policy was unwarranted and we stay… the impugned orders passed by the Delhi High Court,” the apex court said in its order.

The court was dealing with an appeal filed by the Delhi government against the high court’s order preventing it from taking any coercive action against Rapido and Uber. The high court had passed the impugned order after the bike-taxi aggregators challenged the AAP government’s order that had cautioned bike-taxis against plying in Delhi and warned that violations would make aggregators liable for a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.

Vashisht told the apex court that bike-taxis were being illegally operated in the capital and the government only wanted to regulate them by coming out with the relevant notifications. Until then, they cannot be allowed to operate.

Centre’s additional solicitor-general Sanjay Jain, who appeared in response to the court’s earlier notice on the issue, told the bench that transportation was a state subject and it was for the relevant states to issue the necessary regulations. He, however, said possession of a valid licence was a “sine qua non” for the operation of bike-taxis.

Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for Uber, pleaded that around 35,000 bike-taxi operators would lose their livelihood if they were not allowed to ply in the capital. He told the bench that there was no illegality in plying bike-taxis as it was permissible under the MV Act. The argument was supported by senior counsel Sidharth Bhatnagar representing Rapido.

However, the vacation bench after hearing the arguments stayed the high court’s two earlier orders that had permitted the bike-taxis to operate.