The petition filed by an NGO, Parents Forum for Meaningful Education (PFME), was admitted today after the state government counsel told the court that the government favoured retaining the provision in the `Delhi Education Act' under which such punishment was allowed.

The division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Devinder Gupta and justice K.S. Gupta said the court would like to examine the government stand. The PFME in its petition has maintained that such measures in the education rules were contrary to the Union government's National Education Policy, which proscribed corporal punishment.

At present, under the state rules, children over 14 years of age can be punished for using drugs, rowdyism, acts of violence, gambling and practicing casteism and communalism. The state government can currently invoke section 37 of the Delhi Education Act to punish them with detention during break, fine, expulsion and even rustication.

Government counsel Jayant Bhushan told the court that the state government was sticking to its stand that there was a ``need to discipline the students''. He said the PFME's demand for amending section 37 of the education act could not be accepted.