Karnataka High Court directs state govt to stop bike taxis within six weeks

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has directed the state government to take steps to stop bike taxis within six weeks. Disposing of the petitions filed by the bike taxi aggregators, Justice B M Shyam Prasad said that the petitioners cannot operate as aggregators of bike taxis unless the state government notifies relevant guidelines to section 92 of Motor Vehicles Act and rules there under.

The court said all the petitioners will have to cease operating bike taxi aggregators within six weeks.

The petitioner bike taxi aggregators had approached the court seeking direction to the Transport Department to register two-wheelers as transport vehicles, with appropriate permits under the Motor Vehicles Act. The state government had argued that bike taxis are illegal since two-wheelers with white number plates cannot run commercial operations as per the Karnataka Motor Vehicle Rules.

While pronouncing the judgement, Justice Shyam Prasad said that measures are open to the state government to notify relevant guidelines to permit such operations.