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Bengaluru bike taxi resumption: Karnataka HC says act against aggregators, not individual drivers or owners

• Posted on August 22, 2025

The High Court of Karnataka on Friday orally clarified to State Advocate-General Shashi Kiran Shetty that the court, on August 20, had only asked the A-G to instruct the authorities not to take any precipitative action against individual bike taxi owners or drivers for operating their vehicles.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Joshi gave this clarification during morning session when the A-G complained that aggregators, like Uber, Ola and Rapido, have started offering bike taxis on their platforms even though the court had not given any such liberty to them.

“You can take any action as per law against them [aggregators],” the bench orally told the A-G while reiterating that it had asked the authorities “not to harass” individual bike taxi owners or drivers.

Meanwhile, an advocate representing the Bike Taxi Welfare Association (BTWA) and individual bike taxi owners, pointed out to the bench that transport authorities were seizing individual bike taxis and taking action against the drivers despite a clear instruction from the court not to take coercive step against owners and drivers.

In response, the bench told the State A-G that it can pass an order in writing to ensure that bike taxi owners or drivers are not harassed by authorities. Mr. Shetty assured the bench that he would instruct the authorities appropriately.

An advocate, representing the Bike Taxi Welfare Association, pointed out to the bench that the transport authorities were seizing individual bike taxis and taking action against the drivers despite the clear instruction from the court not to take coercive step against them. | Source: The Hindu

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