Karnataka High Court revokes bike taxi ban, directs govt to issue permits

Karnataka High Court revokes bike taxi ban, directs govt to issue permits

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, January 23, 2026: The High Court of Karnataka on January 23 permitted operation of bike taxis while directing the authorities to register bikes as transport vehicles and grant contract carriage permits to them under the Motor Vehicles Act.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Joshi delivered the judgment while allowing the appeals filed by transport technology aggregators — Uber India Systems Private Limited, Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, which operates Rapido services, and ANI Technology Private Limited which operates Ola services, and Bike Taxi Owners’ Welfare Association, and Varikruti Mahendra Reddy, and other individual bike taxi owners.

Single judge’s verdict

The appellants had challenged the April 2, 2025 judgment of a single judge, who had restrained Rapido, Ola, and Uber from operation of their bike taxi services. The single judge had ruled that unless the State Government notifies the relevant guidelines under Section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and the relevant rules are framed under this provision, Rapido, Ola, and Uber cannot function as aggregators for bike taxis.

The bench has now set aside the single judge’s verdict and given liberty to the government of Karnataka to impose additional conditions for issuing a licence under the present rules to transport technology aggregators to offer bike taxi services.

Also, the single judge had refused to issue a direction to the government to to register motorcycles as ‘transport vehicles’ and issue them contract carriage permits so that Rapido, Ola, and Uber could operate bike taxi services.

Besides, the single judge had accepted the State Government’s contention that licences for bike taxi aggregation cannot be considered under the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules 2016, as it is ‘applicable only to grant licences to run four-wheeler vehicles as taxi service on technology aggregator platforms’.

The single judge initially had directed the aggregators to stop services of bike taxis through their platforms within six weeks before extending the deadline to June 15, 2025. Meanwhile, the aggregators had filed appeals before the division bench challenging the verdict of the single judge.

Arguments before division bench

Before the division bench, it was argued on behalf of aggregators that the State Government has no power in law to refuse either registration of two-wheelers as transport vehicles or grant of contract carriage permits to them to carry a passenger under the ‘guise of policy decision’ when the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act permits two-wheelers to be used as contract carriage transport vehicles.

The government has contended that it is a ‘policy decision’ not to allow bike taxis while pointing out that even the Karnataka Electric Bike Taxi Scheme, 2021, which was introduced in July 2021, was withdrawn in 2024.

But the aggregators contended that withdrawal of the electric bike taxi scheme in 2024 was not on study-based decision, but owing to ‘political reasons’ citing law and order situation allegedly arising due to continuous confrontation between the drivers of autorickshaws and maxi-cabs and the riders of bike taxis, and the bike taxi scheme lacking protection to women commuters.

Also, a woman commuter, told the court that bike taxis are safer, more affordable, and convenient for women commuters when compared to other modes of public transport, like buses and cabs, and bike taxis were being used for last-mile connectivity in Bengaluru.

In August 2025, the division bench had orally asked the authorities not to take any precipitative action against individual bike taxi owners or drivers for operating their vehicles and ‘not to harass’ them.