The court has given Rapido four months to make these improvements. If the company fails to meet the deadline, they must leave the Indian market, the court ordered.
NEW DELHI: Today,19th March, The Delhi High Court has given a strong warning to the app-based transport service Rapido, asking it to make its app accessible to disabled users. The court has said that Rapido must stop its operations until it fully fixes these accessibility issues.
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A recent internal audit of the Rapido app has identified 170 accessibility errors. The company has been told that it cannot continue operating in India unless it corrects these issues.
The court has given Rapido four months to make these improvements. If the company fails to meet the deadline, they must leave the Indian market, the court ordered.
The Delhi High Court has also questioned how Rapido was allowed to operate without following accessibility laws. The Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been asked to explain this failure.
The official has been ordered to appear in court on the next hearing date and inform the court about the steps the ministry is taking to check accessibility compliance in transport apps before they are released.
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The court’s decision came in response to a petition filed by two visually impaired individuals.
Advocate Rahul Bajaj, who represented the petitioners, said:
“That report showed that there are 170 accessibility errors in the platform at the base level of WCAG level A. It also showed 81 major failures in the accessibility of the app, and this is as per their own audit. Quite apart from the concerns that we got from disabled users which we were also carrying.”
Rapido defended itself by saying that it is a small start-up in India and does not have enough funds to fix the accessibility problems.
However, the court dismissed this argument and ruled that the company must comply with accessibility requirements like any other business.
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The Delhi High Court has made it clear that all transport apps must follow accessibility laws. It has directed Rapido to make its app fully usable for disabled persons within four months or shut down operations in India.
