BENGALURU: In the wake of the bike-taxi row, a few two-wheeler owners argued before the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday that the state government has no right to deny registration of two-wheelers as transport vehicles, or refuse to grant contract carriage permits under the garb of policy decision, when the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA) permits such actions and existing aggregator rules cover licence to operate two-wheelers on aggregator platforms.
An argument to that effect was made before the division bench of acting Chief Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice CM Joshi by senior counsel Dhyan Chinnappa, representing the two-wheeler owners, during the hearing of appeals filed against the order of a single judge.
On April 2, the single judge held that ride-hailing aggregators Ola, Uber, and Rapido cannot offer bike-taxi services on their platforms, unless the state government frames guidelines under Section 93 of the MVA. Against this, Uber India Systems Pvt Ltd, ANI Technology Pvt Ltd, Roppen Transportation Services Pvt Ltd, Varikruti Mahendra Reddy, and others, who own two-wheelers, have filed the appeals.
However, the government’s stand stated that it has taken a policy decision not to frame the guidelines to allow bike taxis, as same is a violation of the provisions of the MVA.
Chinnappa submitted that the division bench of the HC in 2021 itself held that the definition of contract carriage includes a motorcycle to be used for hire and reward on which a passenger could be carried on a pillion, as notified by the Centre.
Therefore, the stand taken by the state government is in complete violation of the Act, he argued. He further argued that there is no need for a separate licence or permission for aggregators like Ola, Uber, and Rapido to offer bike taxis on their platforms, as the licence granted by the state government to them under the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016, is enough as it covers motor cabs, including two-wheelers.
Further hearing has been adjourned to June 25.