States must be alive to emerging trends & tech, says Karnataka HC in bike taxi judgment

While ruling that the ride-hailing platforms cannot offer bike taxi services in Karnataka until a policy framework is in place, the Karnataka High Court has also noted that the state government must be alive to the emerging circumstances and the evolving conditions in an obvious reference to people looking for multiple options of commute in Bengaluru.

“…it (the government) cannot shut itself to the possibilities of emerging trends and technologies,” Justice BM Shyam Prasad said in his 70-page judgment in the bike taxi case delivered on Wednesday. “If the circumstances justify a new approach, the state government should not lag, and it should be open even to the petitioners ( Uber, Ola and Rapido) to goad the state government to such a change.” The judge further noted that “…an institution which refuses change becomes the architect of decay.”

Ride-hailing firms Uber, Ola and Rapido had moved the high court seeking directions to the state government to recognise motorcycles as transport vehicles and allow them to offer taxi services to customers through their app-based online platforms.

The judge, however, ruled that they could not operate bike taxis in a policy vacuum and asked them to cease their operations in six weeks. The court, however, did not agree with the state’s contention that the two-wheelers cannot be recognised as transport vehicles. The transport department had argued that it cannot issue transport vehicle permits to two-wheelers because they don’t fall under the definition of a “private service vehicle.”

The ministry of road transport & highways (Morth) committee, in 2016, had said that the states should promote bike sharing and e-rickshaws for last mile connectivity, the court noted.

Ride-hailing services and the state government have been at loggerheads after Karnataka, in March last year, banned the operation of bike taxi services owing to what the Congress regime saw as a lack of encouraging response from ride-hailing platforms to offer services with electric two-wheelers and gross misuse of the current policy. The government also claimed risks to women's safety from bike taxis while withdrawing its EV bike taxi scheme last year.