AMRITSAR: Jathedar Akal Takht the highest Sikh temporal seat Gyani Gurbachan Singh has asked the Shriomani Gurdwara Pharbandhak committee (SGPC) to adopt all possible legal remedy to get relief for the Sikh females who were being asked by Chandigarh administration to wear headgear while riding on two wheeler.
Jathedar said that Sikh females who write Kaur with their name and complete Sikh having unshorn head’s hair should be exempted to wear metalled helmet. Moreover, this was deadly against the Sikh tenets to force Sikh women to wear helmet while driving two-wheeler on road, said he.
However, Chandigarh Administration has initiated the process to make mandatory for all women including Sikh drivers and pillion riders to wear helmet.
The UT administration has exempted to wear helmet to only those Sikh women who wear proper turban to drive two-wheeler.
Earlier, wearing headgear was optional for Sikh women riders in UT as they were exempted on religious grounds.
In the month of April this year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had taken suo motu notice of the issue of safety of women, including Sikhs, while riding pillion or driving two-wheelers of any class or description and exemption given to them from wearing headgear under the Motor Vehicle Rules.
Taking cognisance of the matter, the Chandigarh Administration, while considering the aspect of safety of women, had issued a draft notification for amending the existing rules.
According to the draft notification, the words “a Sikh woman wearing a turban” instead of the words “or a woman” are proposed to be substituted in Rule 193 of the Chandigarh Motor Vehicle Rules, 1990. This will make the headgear mandatory for all women drivers and pillion riders (except Sikhs wearing a turban) on any two-wheeler in the city.