Providing interim relief on an appeal moved by Rapido, a bike taxi service provider, a division bench of Justice Vineeth Kothari & Justice C V Karthikeyan also stayed the operation of a communication of Tamil Nadu police addressed to Google LIC, Apple India & Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CRET-In) directing them to remove the ‘Rapido Bike’ app from their platforms.
On July 18, a single judge of the court banned the bike services across the state till the government comes out with a regulation.
Aggrieved, Rapido moved an appeal submitting that all safety measures have been provided to the users of the service.
“Insurance has been provided to riders & pillion, provisions of helmet for pillion riders, safety measures for women has been ensured by providing an SOS button in the mobile application,” senior counsel for Rapido M S Krishnan said.
Krishnan also explained all such procedures in detail to the court in the presence of special government pleader A N Thambi Durai.
As the state has not filed any counter affidavit either in the writ petition or the appeal, the bench directed the state to file its response in two weeks.
The authorities may also disclose in their counter as to when they are likely to frame the specific regulations for such services as has been done by other states, including Telangana, Rajasthan & Chandigarh, the bench said.
The bench then passed an interim stay against the operation of the letters sent by police to online application platforms & the order passed by the single judge.
