Ride-hailing companies

Rapido

,

Ola

and

Uber

suspended bike taxi services in Karnataka from Monday complying with the directive of the high court.

In a note on its app, Rapido said, "While we deeply believe in the value bike taxis bring to daily commuters, we respect the law and will fully abide by the directive." The company said it is working with the government to bring bike taxis back on the road.

Uber has changed its bike taxi option to moto courier on the app and the option on Ola was also removed.

The ban took effect on Monday as the court has ruled that these vehicles cannot operate in a policy vacuum, while lobbing the ball into the government’s court to consider a set of regulations.

On June 13, after an appeal by ride-hailing services Ola and Uber, the court asked the government to file its response by June 20 while posting a hearing for June 24.

“Over 1,00,000 gig workers in Bengaluru and across Karnataka are losing our right to earn and feed our families because of a blanket ban on bike taxi services,” the Namma Bike Taxi Association wrote to Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah. The association said riders rely on this income to feed their families, pay rent, school fees and medical bills.