The Congress-led Karnataka government has engaged Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to represent it before the Supreme Court in its appeal challenging the Karnataka High Court judgment permitting bike taxi operations in the State. [State of Karnataka v. ANI]
Mehta appeared virtually before a Bench of Justices Satish Chandra Sharma and N Kotiswar Singh on Monday and sought time to file additional documents in the matter.
The Bench permitted the request and directed that the matter be listed in the week commencing November 16.
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Shashank Garg, appearing for Bike Taxi Riders association, pointed out that the Union government had issued circulars supporting their position.
"The Union of India has taken a stand in our favour, my Lord. There are circulars in our favour," the counsel submitted.
The Bench responded that Mehta could also appear for the Union government and would place the correct position before the Court.
"Learned SG will appear for Union of India also, don't worry. And whatever is the correct position, he'll certainly...I'm very sure that he will inform us the correct position on the subject," the Court remarked.
In a lighter vein, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Uber, told the Court that Mehta could only represent Karnataka since documents issued by the Union government supported the bike taxi operators.
"He's certainly going to appear only for State of Karnataka. Because he can't appear for Government of India, because there are direct documents in our favour," he said.
He subsequently clarified that there was no objection to Mehta's appearance.
On the last date of hearing, the State had engaged Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal to appear in the case. However, he withdrew from the case after Rapido pointed out that he had given it a legal opinion on the same case.
The dispute arises from the Karnataka High Court's January 23 judgment lifting the ban on bike taxi services in the State.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Joshi had allowed appeals filed by aggregators including Ola, Uber and Rapido against an earlier order suspending bike taxi operations until Karnataka framed a regulatory policy.
The High Court held that motorcycles could be registered as transport vehicles and operated as contract carriages. It ruled that the State could impose regulatory conditions but could not refuse permits merely because the vehicle was a motorcycle.
Karnataka subsequently approached the Supreme Court, raising concerns over passenger safety, insurance coverage and the absence of adequate safeguards for bike taxi passengers.
Five auto and taxi driver associations have also challenged the High Court ruling, contending that permitting bike taxis without comparable regulatory obligations would adversely affect existing transport operators.
Rapido was represented by Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul.
Ola was represented by a team from Luthra & Luthra led by its partner Faisal Sherwani.