The Maharashtra government has issued notices to Apple and Google demanding the deletion of several ride-hailing apps from stores. Ola, Uber and Rapido have come under heavy scrutiny in the state over its bike taxi services — with Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik recently demanding criminal action against company owners.
According to an Indian Express report, the Maharashtra State Cyber department issued notices to the two tech giants on Friday. The notices invoked the Information Technology Act of 2000 and asked companies to “remove and disable access” to the applications from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
“We have sent letters through Maharashtra Cyber to Google and Apple regarding these apps. Bike taxis are operating illegally in Maharashtra and action is being taken accordingly,” Sarnaik told the publication.
The order comes mere days after Sarnaik directed Maharashtra police to shut down unauthorised bike taxi apps of aggregators such as Ola, Uber and Rapido earlier this week. A letter to the cyber crime department had also called for cases to be registered against the owners of these firms.
Are bike taxis allowed in Maharashtra?
The ongoing tussle with bike taxis had begun in late 2022 as the state government refused to grant an aggregator license to Rapido. All bike taxi services were suspended by January 2023 — despite Rapido approaching the Supreme Court — and Maharashtra was eventually asked to formulate an aggregator policy for bike taxis.
The ban was eventually lifted in April 2025 and legalised operations for 100% electric vehicles. Subsequent notification of the Maharashtra Bike-Taxi Rules also paved the way for Ola, Uber and Rapido bikes to ply under an established framework. The government had granted provisional 30-day bike taxi licenses to Rapido, Ola, and Uber — giving them a window to submit mandatory compliance documents and transition to a fully electric fleet.
Multiple flashpoints emerged over the subsequent months — with the Maharashtra government eventually scrapping all the temporary permits issued for Ola, Uber and Rapido to operate e-bike taxi services on March 10 this year. Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik noted that all three companies had failed to submit their compliance documents or transition to green-plate EVs. He also said that many petrol bikes – including several registered outside Maharashtra – were being used to ferry passengers and many of the drivers employed were from outside the state. RTO teams had reportedly detected several hundred illegal bike taxis plying on the road over the past year.
“These apps are openly violating government rules while carrying out financial transactions, adversely affecting the livelihood of licensed rickshaw and taxi drivers. App-based bikes do not adhere to safety regulations, posing a serious threat to public safety,” the minister said in his Tuesday letter.
He also mentioned an accident involving an unauthorised bike taxi in Mumbai’s Bandra Link Road area on April 22, in which a woman died.
“Recently, a serious incident came to light wherein a bike taxi service operated through one of these applications allegedly resulted in the tragic death of a woman. A criminal case has been registered in this regard,” Indian Express quoted the notices as saying.
It contended that several similar cases had reportedly been registered across Maharashtra.
</p> |
