Once again it has taken the courts to take a stand on an issue which was rightly in the domain of the executive. After a push from a bench of the Delhi High Court, the Delhi government has said it will amend the rules to ensure that women cannot ride without helmets in the city.

In an act of political cowardice, the Delhi government had amended the rules of the Motor Vehicles Act to exempt the Sikh community from wearing helmets. Since it was difficult to discriminate between Sikh and non-Sikh women, the traffic police permitted all women to ride without helmets.

Not wearing helmets has cost many women their lives and it is time this charade ended. Helmets save lives and that is why they are mandatory across the world. It is wrong to inject the issue of religion into the issue. Hopefully the authorities will, in the coming times, also persuade male Sikhs to wear helmets. After all, don't Sikhs who pilot combat jets wear the prescribed helmets?