Delhi HC Issues Notice To Rapido On A Plea Seeking Direction To Make App Disabled-Friendly

The Delhi High Court on Thursday has issued a notice to Rapido and others on a plea seeking a direction to ensure disabled-friendly access on the mobile application that provides bike taxis and logistics services.

This petition has been moved by a lawyer and a banker who are people with disabilities.

Justice Subramonium Prasad issued a notice to Rapido and the Central Government and asked them to file their response. The matter has been listed on December 15 for further hearing.

The petition has been moved by Amar Jain, who is a corporate lawyer, a legal policymaker, a disability rights activist and has been blind since birth.

Another Petitioner Dipto Ghosh is a banker at the Indian Bank in Siliguri, West Bengal and has total visual impairment.

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

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

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

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

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

The plea stated that there have been many 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 & 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 and enforceable accessibility standards, and improve the features of the app as suggested earlier, all within a strict time frame of a 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 and ensure that the issues are promptly rectified within a reasonable time frame of 6 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.