Relief for Bengaluru commuters: Bike taxi ban revoked by Karnataka high court, state asked to impose conditions | Bengaluru News

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BENGALURU: The Karnataka high court on Friday permitted the plying of bike taxis in the state.A division bench comprising chief justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Joshi passed an order to this effect while setting aside the order of the single bench of April last year.The vehicle owners filed applications for registration of their vehicles as transport vehicles. “We direct the state govt to consider such applications for registration as transport vehicles and to grant permits to operate as contract carriages,” the bench said.While the concerned authorities are not precluded from examining the relevant aspects of vehicle registration and issuance of permits, the same is not denied on the ground that motorcycles cannot be operated as transport vehicles or contract carriage. The regional transport authority can impose such conditions as are considered necessary, as attached to the permits in accordance with law. Having regard to the provisions of Section 74(2) of the MV Act, the authority concerned shall consider the pending applications of the aggregators and pass appropriate orders.The aggregators are also at liberty to file fresh applications. In the event such applications are filed, the same is to be considered in accordance with law and the observations of this court, the Chief Justice further orally observed while reading out from the order.Uber India Systems, ANI Technologies Private Limited, and Roppen Transportation Services Pvt Ltd (all aggregators), along with others, challenged the single bench’s order.On April 2, 2025, a single bench disposed of their petitions, referring to an expert committee report of 2019, which considered the impact of bike taxis on traffic and safety.“Unless the state govt notifies relevant guidelines under Section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act and the Rules framed thereunder, the petitioners cannot operate bike taxi services, and no directions can be issued to the state govt to consider their applications seeking the grant of aggregator permits/licences,” the single bench said in its order.On the other hand, the state govt stated that the policy issued in respect of gig workers covered the issue, and no separate policy in respect of bike taxis was required.