Maharashtra Cyber Orders Ride-App Removals

Maharashtra Cyber has asked Google and Apple to remove Uber, Ola and Rapido from their app stores in India, widening the state’s campaign against bike-taxi operators. Notices dated May 15 and issued by the Office of the Additional Director General of Police, Maharashtra Cyber, told the two companies to “remove and disable access” to the apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, according to The Indian Express. The move followed a May 12 letter from Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik to the state cybercrime department seeking intervention against bike-taxi platforms operating in the state. Sarnaik said the services were operating illegally in Maharashtra and that action was being taken accordingly, The Indian Express reported. (indianexpress.com) The notices target ride-hailing apps broadly, but the dispute centers on bike-taxi services offered through Uber, Ola and Rapido in Maharashtra. Maharashtra Cyber said those services were “unlawful” and violated the existing legal and regulatory framework because they were allegedly operating passenger transport services without valid permissions, approvals or compliance with transport rules and the Motor Vehicles Act. (indianexpress.com) ### What exactly did Maharashtra Cyber tell Apple and Google to do? The May 15 notices invoked Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and directed Apple and Google to remove and disable access to the applications from their stores, The Indian Express reported. The notices also warned that failure to comply with directives from Indian law-enforcement agencies could invite legal action under the IT Act and intermediary liability rules. (indianexpress.com) The state cyber department framed the app-store demand as an enforcement step against services it says are being used for unauthorized passenger transport. The notices did not, in the material reviewed, describe any public deadline for compliance by Apple or Google. ### Why is the state calling these bike taxis illegal? (indianexpress.com) Pratap Sarnaik said in his May 12 letter that several bike-taxi services had been operating in Maharashtra for months without valid permissions or compliance with transport department rules, according to Hindustan Times. His letter also asked the cybercrime department to stop the apps’ operations and register FIRs against company owners. (indianexpress.com) March 10 is another key date in the dispute. On that day, Sarnaik told the Legislative Council that Maharashtra was revoking the provisional licences granted to Ola, Uber and Rapido because the companies had failed to submit required documents and comply with conditions under the state’s e-bike taxi policy, The Indian Express reported. (hindustantimes.com) The state’s policy, as described by Sarnaik in March, allowed electric bike taxis in cities with populations above 100,000 and required aggregators to complete compliance requirements within 30 days before applying for permanent licences. He said the companies continued operations without meeting those conditions. (indianexpress.com) ### What safety issues are officials citing? A November 2025 crash is central to the state’s case. Sarnaik’s letter referred to the death of a 49-year-old woman traveling on an allegedly unauthorized bike taxi on the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road, and said an FIR had already been registered in that case, according to Hindustan Times. (indianexpress.com) Maharashtra Cyber’s notices said driver verification, insurance protection, women’s safety measures and emergency response systems were “highly inadequate.” The notices also said a “serious incident” involving one of the services had allegedly resulted in the death of a woman and that several similar cases had reportedly been registered across Maharashtra. (hindustantimes.com) ### What happens next for Uber, Ola and Rapido users in Maharashtra? Google and Apple are now the immediate gatekeepers because the notices ask them to pull the apps from their stores rather than directly ordering riders to stop using them. If the companies comply, new downloads and updates for Uber, Ola and Rapido could be disrupted for users in Maharashtra, based on the wording reported by The Indian Express. That is an inference from the reported direction to “remove and disable access” to the apps. (indianexpress.com) The next formal step on the record is the response, if any, from Apple and Google to the May 15 notices. Maharashtra’s transport department and Maharashtra Cyber are the named state bodies pressing the case, while Uber, Ola and Rapido remain the platforms identified in the notices and earlier transport actions. (indianexpress.com)