New Delhi, Aug. 29: The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a petition filed by some Banaras Hindu University girl students challenging restrictions on food, clothes, cellphones and Internet that allegedly do not apply to boys studying at the same varsity.

A bench headed by new Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the court would examine the rules in November.

The eight girls, who all stay in the on-campus Mahila Mahavidyalaya Hostel, had moved the court last year challenging the varsity's decision to suspend them after they sat on dharna demanding that the BHU library be kept open round the clock.

The court had subsequently stayed the suspension order, but the alleged gender discrimination had not been dealt with.

When it came up yesterday, advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi urged the court to quash the regulations.

In their plea, the girls said they had to be inside their hostel premises by 8pm and were not allowed to go out after that even to study in the library. Boys in the hostel, however, can stay out till 10pm and don't need permission to step out after the deadline, they said.

The hostel guidelines instruct girls to wear "decent clothes" on the campus. No such rules exist for boys, they said.

They said girl students were not allowed to install Wi-fi to access the Net in their hostel rooms and speak on mobile phones after 10pm. If found to be speaking on the phone, they are asked to put their phone on speaker mode, they said.

The girls' hostel serves only vegetarian food, while the boys' hostel also serves non-vegetarian food.

Girls in the hostel are barred from joining any protest. No such rule applies to boys.