Following a two-month suspension, numerous bike taxis restarted services in Bengaluru on Thursday. This followed the Karnataka High Court's verbal request to the State Advocate-General to make certain that officials refrain from any hasty actions against the bike taxi drivers, considering the ongoing case in court as “lives are at stake” in this issue.

On August 20, a Division Bench including Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Joshi, during appeals from Rapido, Uber, Ola, and several bike taxi owners/drivers, verbally indicated to A-G Shashi Kiran Shetty that bike taxis are legally allowed, and the government’s ‘policy decision’ against them has led to a ban on their lawful business.

Since the government did not submit a comprehensive written statement regarding its ‘decision’ to prohibit bike taxis and their operation on aggregator platforms such as Uber, Rapido, and Ola, the Division Bench granted the government until September 22 to make a ‘conscious’ policy decision concerning bike taxis, allowing the court to determine if the policy can withstand legal review.

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Subsequently, the A-G stated that the government, at the top level, would determine whether to establish a policy and if so, what that policy on bike taxis should entail.

During the postponement of the hearing to September 22, the Bench verbally urged the A-G to carefully consider the concerns presented in the appeals made by the aggregators, individual bike taxi proprietors, and their association, as it pertains to livelihood matters.

The primary reason for the government to prohibit bike taxis, which are permitted by the Motor Vehicles Act, was concerns about women's safety and opposition from autorickshaw driver unions regarding the bike taxi service.

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Bike taxi services were halted on June 16 when the three main companies, Rapido, Uber, and Ola, removed the feature from their applications after the government’s prohibition, and a single-judge Bench of the High Court directed bike taxi operators to stop operations by June 15 on April 2 while refusing to challenge the ban.