Karnataka has additional argued that the Motor Autos Act, 1988 doesn’t confer an absolute proper to function any specific class of auto as a taxi. Based on the State, the grant of a contract-carriage allow stays topic to the discretion of transport authorities, which can refuse an utility on public-safety grounds.
The State additionally disputed the Excessive Courtroom’s conclusion that bikes fall inside the definitions of “motor cab” and “contract carriage” beneath the Act. It maintained that bikes are primarily designed for private use and can’t be handled as autos constructed or tailored for the industrial carriage of passengers.
It additional mentioned that the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Expertise Aggregator Guidelines, 2016 have been framed for four-wheeled motor cabs and consciously excluded bikes.
The Excessive Courtroom, nonetheless, had held that plying taxis was a respectable enterprise protected beneath Article 19(1)(g) of the Structure. It discovered that Karnataka’s unwritten prohibition on bike taxis was not an inexpensive restriction since no regulation, rule or notification prohibited the registration of bikes as transport autos.
