Solicitor-General to appear for Karnataka in bike-taxi case

The State government said its restriction on the use of two-wheelers as taxis was reasonable, proportionate and in the public interest. File

Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta is appearing for the Congress-led D.K. Shivakumar government in Karnataka before the Supreme Court in an appeal against a State High Court decision to allow bike-taxis as a means of public transport.

The State, in an appeal filed through its panel counsel, advocate Sanchit Garga, has submitted to the Supreme Court that a State High Court decision to allow bike-taxis ignored the low safety standards of motorcycles, higher accident fatality rates, congestion, and their limited utility as public transport vehicles.

The State government said its restriction on the use of two-wheelers as taxis was reasonable, proportionate and in the public interest.

“The State has not imposed a blanket prohibition on the use of motorcycles for commercial purposes; rather, it has only restricted their use for carrying passengers. Motorcycle riders continue to have viable alternative avenues of livelihood, including under the Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025, which provides statutory protection and welfare measures for such workers,” Karnataka had submitted.

In January 2026, a Division Bench of the High Court set aside a Single Bench order of April last year that stopped bike-taxi services, pending the framing of a policy by the State.

The Division Bench had concluded that taxi aggregators and individual motorcycle owners possessed a “crystallised right to obtain permits for operating motorcycles as taxis under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988”.

public transport / Karnataka / government