Office-bearers of Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Bar Association (MMBA) on Wednesday distributed pamphlets outside the court campus urging two-wheeler riders to wear helmet in order to safeguard them from head injuries in case of road accidents.
The move was seen as one taken diametrically opposite to the stand of district court lawyers who, later in the day, took out a rally on two-wheelers in defiance of the rule making helmets compulsory and staged a demonstration outside the main gate of the High Court Bench campus here.
MMBA president M. Subash Babu said that his association had decided to support the rule making helmets compulsory since three of its own members had suffered severe head injuries and had to be hospitalised for months together since they had not worn helmets while riding two-wheelers. “Very recently, our association member Jacob went up to coma stage and had to spend Rs. 9.5 lakh towards medical expenses. Doctors had told him that such severe head injuries could have been avoided if he had worn a helmet. This is why we decided to support helmet rule,” he added.
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Association’s vice-president S. Srinivasa Raghavan said that the newly elected office-bearers had decided to involve themselves in constructive activities which would benefit the advocate community as well as society at large. Support for helmet rule was its first major activity.
“We wanted to make sure that the message to should reach a wide audience. Hence, the pamphlets were printed in Tamil and distributed to every two-wheeler rider outside the court campus. Interestingly, we gave the pamphlets to some police officers too who were not wearing helmets,” he said.
MMBA secretary M. Veilkani Raju, treasurer N. Ilango and others also took part in the drive.
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