Karnataka govt moves SC against High Court order lifting bike taxi ban
Bengaluru: The Karnataka Government has approached the Supreme Court challenging a recent judgment of the Karnataka High Court that lifted the ban on bike taxi services.
The appeal has been filed against ANI Technologies and other cab aggregators. The appeal, filed last week, is yet to be listed for hearing before the apex court.
It may be noted that the High Court had ruled that the State cannot deny permits solely on the ground that the vehicle is a motorcycle.
The judgment was delivered by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C. M. Joshi while hearing appeals filed by taxi aggregators, including Ola, Uber and Rapido.
The Bench, headed by Justice B. Shyam Prasad, set aside an earlier April 2025 order passed by a single judge that had directed bike taxi operations to be halted until the State framed a comprehensive regulatory policy.
In that order, the court had observed that bike taxi services could not operate in the absence of a formal legal framework.
Challenging the single-judge ruling, cab aggregators and driver associations had argued that such a restriction adversely impacted livelihoods.
The Division Bench to this contention opined that prohibiting motorcycles from operating as contract carriages amounted to an unreasonable restriction on the fundamental right to trade and profession under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.
It further noted that motorcycles fall within the definition of “transport vehicles” under the Motor Vehicles Act and therefore cannot be excluded from consideration for permits as taxis.
However, the Court clarified that the State retains the authority to regulate bike taxi operations and impose conditions under Section 74(2) of the Act, but cannot reject applications solely because the vehicle is a motorcycle.