If a delivery or ride-hailing app switches your ID off without warning, Karnataka law now treats that as a legal event, not a private business decision. The Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers Social Security and Welfare Act, 2025 says an aggregator cannot deactivate you without written reasons and fourteen days notice.
The short answer. Under section 14 of Karnataka Act No. 72 of 2025, an aggregator or platform cannot terminate or deactivate a gig worker without giving valid reasons in writing, fourteen days prior notice, and a fair hearing. The only carve-out is conduct causing bodily harm, and even then you keep a right of appeal.
| Section | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| 7 | Registration with the Board as soon as any platform onboards you, whatever the duration of work, plus a Unique ID that works across every platform |
| 10 | The Board registers newly onboarded workers within 30 days; aggregators had to hand over their full worker database within 45 days of commencement |
| 12 | A written contract, with an exhaustive list of the grounds on which you can be removed |
| 13 | Transparency about the automated monitoring and decision making systems that rate, rank and allocate your work |
| 14 | Fourteen days written notice and reasons before deactivation |
| 15 | Reasons for any payment deduction stated in the invoice itself, and payout on the contract cycle, whether daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly |
| 20 | A welfare fee paid by the aggregator into a fund built for you |
| 22 | A grievance route that does not depend on the app answering your email |
Section 14 has two limbs, and both matter.
The proviso is narrow. Where the ground for suspension includes cases of bodily harm, the platform may act immediately without the fourteen day notice. Rule 11 of the 2025 Rules adds a short list of other immediate-termination grounds: offences under Chapters V and VI of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, material and financial fraud, and any other offence the Board specifies. Even in those cases the worker keeps the right to appeal.
So “the algorithm flagged you” is not, by itself, a lawful reason. A low rating, a customer complaint you were never shown, or an ID blocked pending an unexplained review are exactly the situations sections 13 and 14 were written for.
The Rules set a tight clock, so act on the day you find out.
Keep the app's own written reason, your ID number, your earnings screenshots and the dates. Under section 15 the reason for a deduction is supposed to be on the invoice, so your invoices are evidence.
This is where careful reading matters, because a lot of what circulates online is wrong.
What the Act settles. Section 20(1) charges the aggregator a Platform Based Gig Workers Welfare Fee of not less than one percent and not more than five percent of the payout to the gig worker in each transaction. Section 20(2) lets the State Government set different percentages for different categories of aggregator listed in the Schedule. Section 20(5) provides that the fee collected counts towards the contribution payable under section 114(4) of the Code on Social Security, 2020.
What the Act leaves to a notification. The exact percentage is “as may be notified by the State Government”. Section 20(1) required that notification within six months of the Act coming into force. Anyone quoting you a single firm figure should be able to show you that gazette notification. Check before you rely on a number.
How it is collected. Under Rule 17(2) the aggregator self-declares and pays the fee within five working days from the end of each quarter, in a standardised format. Tips, ex-gratia and event-based payments, referral fees and incentives are excluded as “settled payments”. Rule 18 requires quarterly electronic remittance into the Board's account, and lets an aggregator claim a refund of any excess within 90 days, which a designated officer must decide within 30 days by reasoned order.
Note what this means for you: the fee is levied on the aggregator, not deducted from your earnings. If a platform tells you it is taking the welfare fee out of your payout, ask it to point to the provision that allows that.
| Instrument | Detail |
|---|---|
| Karnataka Act No. 72 of 2025 | Deemed to have come into force with effect from 30 May 2025, under section 1(2) |
| The Rules | Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers Social Security and Welfare Rules, 2025, Notification No. LD 413 LET 2023, dated 19 November 2025 |
| Draft stage | Draft rules published 30 June 2025 in the Karnataka Gazette, with 30 days for objections |
| The Board | Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers Welfare Board, headquarters at Bengaluru, under section 3 |
Be realistic about the gap between a statute and a working benefit. The Act creates the Board and the fund and fixes the machinery. The schemes themselves, and the benefits you can actually claim, are notified separately: section 3(2) leaves it to the Board to notify general or sector specific social security benefits, and section 7(b) ties your access to schemes to contributions and to a minimum number of transactions in a quarter, again as notified.
The enforceable parts today are the ones that do not wait for a scheme: the written contract, the notice before deactivation, the transparency duty, the deduction-on-the-invoice rule, and the grievance ladder.
Because so much depends on notifications, this is a good RTI subject. File with the Labour Department, Government of Karnataka, and with the Board once it is functioning, and ask for specific documents rather than opinions:
Our AI RTI Drafter turns those questions into a clean application, and the RTI Act guide explains the 30 day clock and what to do with silence. For the full method, see The RTI Playbook.
Section 1(3) applies the Act to every aggregator or platform operating or providing a listed service within the State of Karnataka. What matters is where the service is provided, not where the company is registered.
Not automatically, but the platform has to justify it. Unless the ground falls in the narrow carve-out for bodily harm, or the Rule 11 list covering Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Chapter V and VI offences and material or financial fraud, section 14(2) required written reasons and fourteen days notice. Ask in writing which ground applies and where it appears in your contract.
No. Section 20(1) charges it to the aggregator or platform, calculated on the payout to you. Rule 17 makes the aggregator self-declare and pay it quarterly.
Section 7(a) gives you registration with the Board and a Unique ID that is applicable across all platforms. That is the point of it. Your record follows you rather than resetting each time you join a different app.
No. Rule 23 lets a registered gig worker apply in person, through the web portal or by any other mode. Start with the Internal Dispute Resolution Committee within 7 working days, and keep copies of everything.
Section 15 requires the aggregator to inform you of the reasons for any payment deduction within the invoice raised for the work you performed. It also requires payout to be made as per the contract, whether the cycle is daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly. An unexplained deduction is a breach you can put to the Internal Dispute Resolution Committee.
It works alongside it. Section 20(5) expressly counts the welfare fee towards the contribution payable under section 114(4) of the Code on Social Security, 2020, so the State fee and the central obligation are reconciled rather than duplicated.
Reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak. This page is general legal information, not legal advice. Statutory text quoted from India Code. Where the Act leaves a figure to a State Government notification, verify the current notification before relying on it.