New two-wheelers in Maharashtra will have to be sold with two ISI helmets compulsorily. Failing to do so will impose a ban on the registration of two-wheelers in the state without any further intimation.
The Maharashtra High Court Nagpur Bench announced this order after hearing public interest litigation, PIL 9 (2019). The PIL stated that the Rule 138(4)(f) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, which prescribes that at the time of purchase of the two-wheeler, the manufacturer of the two-wheeler shall supply a protective headgear conforming to specifications prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986.
The Court took a serious offence for not following its orders of supplying two ISI-helmets to the buyer of a two-wheeler and it has made an opinion to ban the registration of two-wheelers in Maharashtra.
Following this hearing, the High Court Nagpur bench has directed to send an intimation to eight manufacturers along with SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) to strictly implement the decision of supplying two helmets meeting the BSI standards to the buyer by the manufacturer.
The Court has also directed the Transport Commissioner to ensure that the prescribed ISI-helmets as per BSI standards to be supplied by the manufacturers. On failing to do so, the court will ban the registration of two-wheelers in the entire state of Maharashtra.
Every year, many lives are lost in two-wheeler accidents in India. Most of the deaths are caused due to head injuries which could have been prevented by wearing helmets. The Mumbai Traffic Police issued 4.24 lakh challans in 2016 for ‘riding without a helmet’. The figure dropped to 1.45 lakh challans in 2017 and further to 1.14 lakh in 2018.
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The strict implementation of Maharashtra High Court Nagpur Bench’s order of supplying two ISI-helmets to the buyer of a two-wheeler would reduce the number of deaths in road accidents due to not wearing helmets or poor quality helmets in the state. Following the Court’s order, multiple Road safety activists and organisations in favour of safe helmets policy are demanding other states to enforce the new rule, too.
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[Source: Financial Express]
