Kochi: Kerala has decided to expand the helmet rule for pillion riders. The Union government’s rules in this regard would be implemented in Kerala, the state government informed the High Court on Tuesday. The new rule applicable for two-wheeler riders will come into force from December 1.

The Central government had introduced an amendment to the helmet rules enforcing the law on August 9. The amendment says that helmet is compulsory for all two-wheeler riders above the age of four years.

The state government has now withdrawn an appeal filed by it challenging an order of the High Court single bench imposing the helmet rule for pillion riders.

A division bench of the Kerala High Court had earlier rejected an appeal filed by the state government against the single-bench order. The division bench had also warned the state to submit within one week its stand on enforcing the Central rule in Kerala. In case the state failed to do so, the Court said that it would be compelled to issue a circular enforcing the law.

According to the division bench, exemption could not be granted to Kerala in this regard when a Central law is in force.

Following this, the state informed the court that it would implement the rule in Kerala, for which wide publicity would be given through the media.

However, Kerala had much earlier granted exemption to rear-seat riders by amending the Central Motor Vehicles Act of 1988. T U Raveendran, a resident of Palluruthy, had filed an appeal against this exemption before the Kerala High Court in 2015, based on which Justice Chidambaresh made helmets compulsory for all riders. The Kerala government had approached the division bench against this order.