Delhi HC asks Rapido's response on plea seeking disabled-friendly bike-taxi service

In response to a plea asking for an order to guarantee disabled-friendly access on the mobile application that offers bike taxis and logistics services, the Delhi High Court on Thursday sent notice to Rapido and others.

Two disabled individuals, a lawyer and a banker, have initiated this petition.

Rapido and the Central Government received a notice from Justice Subramonium Prasad requesting that they submit a response.

A follow-up hearing has been scheduled for December 15.Amar Jain, a corporate lawyer, legal policymaker, disability rights advocate, and blind person from birth, has filed the petition.

A different petitioner With complete visual impairment, Dipto Ghosh works as a banker at the Indian Bank in Siliguri, West Bengal.

The petition has been moved by advocate Rahul Bajaj against Roppen Transport Services Private Ltd. (Rapido), a mobile application that provides Indian bike taxis and logistics services.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways as well as the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disability (DEPW) Government of India have also been arrayed as respondents.

It is stated that the petitioners are both working individuals who frequently book rides via the Rapido mobile app to commute from their homes to workplaces and elsewhere.

Petitioner Amar Jain has to juggle between courts and attends office during his day while Dipto Ghosh commutes daily to his office, the plea stated.

For this, they have to rely on the Rapido mobile app; however, the inaccessibility issues of the application cause significant hindrances to using it, it added.

The plea said that there have been several incidents where Amar Jain tried to book a ride on the Rapido app but faced significant hurdles in doing so.

He tried to take up the matter with the co-founder of Rapido through his NGO, informing them about the issues with the app.

It is also stated that petitioner Dipto Ghosh has also faced an incident in the past where he was denied a ride by a Rapido ‘Captain’ because of his disability and was humiliated for his condition.

Subsequently, a petition was initiated at the time but was later closed after receiving an apology and assurance from Rapido that the said Captain’s ID had been suspended.

The petitioners have sought direction from the Ministry and DEPW to direct Rapido to take immediate, effective, and comprehensive steps in effecting the provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, ensuring that the rights and accessibility of persons with disabilities are safeguarded.

The petitioners have prayed that these steps should include, but not be limited to, mandating accessibility audits, providing accessibility training for staff, implementing clear andenforceable accessibility standards, and improve the features of the app as suggested earlier, all within a strict time frame of one month.

They also have sought direction from Rapido to immediately conduct a comprehensive accessibility audit of its ride-booking mobile app to identify and address all accessibility barriers for individuals with disabilities, especially those with visual impairments andensure that the issues are promptly rectified within a reasonable time frame of six months.

The petitioners have also sought direction from the Ministry and DEPW to direct Rapido to collaborate with experts in the field of digital accessibility and provide specialized training to its customer care representatives to effectively address accessibility-related concerns and provide timely resolutions to customers with disabilities and ensure comprehensive and holistic end-to-end accessibility of its offering.

They have also sought a direction to impose penalty on Rapido under Section 89 of the RPWD Act, 2016 for failing to make their app accessible despite repeated attempts by the petitioners to address the same.They have also sought direction from the Ministry to put in place a strong legal mandate and operational guidance for cab aggregators to make their offerings disabled-friendly.

(with inputs from agenices)