BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Friday directed the state government to consider applications filed by taxi aggregators for the registration of motor vehicles as transport vehicles and grant permission to operate them as contract carriages on their platforms.
The court clarified that Regional Transport Officials may impose necessary conditions in accordance with Section 74(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act.
The division bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C M Joshi pronounced the order while allowing appeals filed by the Bike Taxi Welfare Association, taxi aggregators such as Ola, Uber, and Rapido, as well as a few two-wheeler owners.
The appeals challenged an April 2 order by a single judge, which had held that Ola, Uber, and Rapido could not offer bike taxis on their platforms unless the state government notified relevant guidelines under Section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act.
The division bench set aside the single judge’s order, stating that permission to operate bike taxis cannot be denied on the ground that they cannot function as transport vehicles.
Questioning the legality of not considering applications for registration, the Bike Taxi Welfare Association argued before the court that the livelihoods of around 600,000 families across the state would be affected, out of a total of 650,000 bike taxi operators, due to the state’s refusal to register two-wheelers as taxis. These families had invested their savings and taken loans to purchase bikes amid limited employment opportunities.
The Association’s counsel contended that, instead of depriving two-wheeler taxi drivers of their livelihoods, the state government should have taken remedial measures if any law and order issues arose. The counsel argued that the state’s stance of not registering two-wheelers under the Motor Vehicles Act and Karnataka Motor Vehicle Rules violated fundamental rights.