New Delhi, August 25: The Delhi high court on Wednesday sought the state government’s stand on a plea to make helmets mandatory for women and pillion riders.
Issuing notice to the government on the plea and seeking its reply within four weeks, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna fixed October 19 for further hearing of the matter. Petitioner Ulhas, who claims to be a filmmaker, submitted that with the intervention of this very court, the state government had framed rules making headgear mandatory for motorcyclists and pillion riders, but Sikhs and women have been exempted.
During the last hearing when the PIL was filed in the high court, the bench had said that due to the manner in which the petition had been drafted, the court could not treat it as a PIL. The bench had suggested to the petitioner that he properly draft the petition challenging the Motor Vehicles Act and the Delhi Motor Vehicles Rules. The petitioner had argued that every year, about 60 to 70 women die due to head injuries sustained in road accidents involving two wheelers and therefore government should make wearing helmets compulsory for them as well as all pillion riders.
The bench had earlier also referred to a clause in the Central Motor Vehicles Act, which makes it optional for pillion riders to wear helmets. It had asked the petitioner to file a fresh petition after taking the help of a lawyer and had said, “You file a proper petition, then we will see why the government has made the clause optional.”
–Agencies