The Karnataka High Court on Friday refused to stay a single-judge bench’s order halting bike taxi services in the state, reported Bar and Bench.

However, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar sought the response of state authorities on appeals filed by cab aggregators Ola and Uber against the ban.

On April 2, the single-judge bench ordered all bike taxi services to stop operations in Karnataka within six weeks. The court referred to an expert committee report from 2019, which had considered the impact of bike taxis on traffic and safety, according to Live Law.

Unless the state government frames rules and guidelines to permit bike taxis, such vehicles cannot be permitted in Karnataka, the court had held.

The six-week deadline for bike taxis to stop operation in the state was set to expire in May. However, cab aggregators later urged the court to extend this deadline. Accepting the request, the High Court had allowed Ola and Uber to continue their bike taxi services till June 15.

On Friday, the court rejected the cab aggregators’ request to continue interim relief.

The bench said it would have allowed the request had the state government been in the process of framing rules. However, since the government had decided not to permit bike taxis, such an order could not be passed, it said.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on June 24. The state government told the bench it will file its response by June 20.