Now Uber Moves Karnataka High Court Challenging State's Gig Workers Welfare Act, Notice Issued

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday (July 28) issued notice on a petition filed by Uber India Systems Private Limited challenging the constitutional validity of the Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025 and the Rules framed thereunder.

A single judge bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj also extended to Uber the benefit of an earlier interim arrangement made by a coordinate bench, under which platform aggregators Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, and Zepto were directed to deposit the gig workers' welfare fee with the Court Registry and were granted protection from coercive action upon such deposit.

The Court directed that Uber's petition be tagged with the batch of pending petitions challenging the legislation.

While issuing notice to the Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers Welfare Board (respondent no. 4), which had not been issued notice in the earlier proceedings, the Court observed:

“...Issue notice to Respondent No. 4. Connect with WP 19746/2026. The coordinate bench of this court has passed an interim order dated 03.07.2026. The benefit of the said interim order will be equally applicable to the petitioner. Connect with WP 19746/2026… The timeline for compliance [to make deposit] which is three weeks would have to be calculated from today”, the court noted in the order.

At the outset, Uber submitted that the coordinate bench had fixed July 24 as the deadline for existing petitioners to deposit the welfare fee with the Court Registry. Since Uber had approached the Court subsequently, it sought three weeks' time from Tuesday to make the deposit. Accepting the request, the Court granted Uber three weeks to comply.

Uber has sought a declaration that the Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025 and the Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Rules, 2025 are unconstitutional and unenforceable. It has also challenged the January 27, 2026 notification constituting the Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers Welfare Board.

The Court directed that the matter be listed along with the connected batch of petitions (WP No. 19746/2026).

As per the State's February 2026 notification, aggregators are liable to pay a welfare fee for the quarter covering April, May, and June. The notification mandates that all platforms and aggregators shall make payouts to the tune of 1 per cent for each ride, with caps of Rs 0.50, Rs 0.75, and Rs 1 for two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers respectively. Similarly, food and grocery delivery services would also attract 1 per cent, with a cap of Rs 0.50 per gig.

The bank details for making such payments would be notified on the website of the Labour Department. Until then, aggregators and platforms were asked to self-report the payments made to each gig worker on each transaction on a quarterly basis.

Case Title: Uber India Systems Private Limited v. State of Karnataka & Ors. 

Case No: WP 19776/2026