A petition was on Tuesday filed before the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the Centre to make moral education a compulsory part of curriculum from nursery to university level to curb corruption and crime in society.

A petition has been filed before the court of Chief Justice N V Ramana seeking directions to the Centre and the National Council for Educational Reserach and Training to also put in place a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of moral and value education.

"Issue directions to the respondent to take urgent steps to ensure that moral and value educatuion become a compulsory and significant part of curriculum from nursery to university stage in public and private institutes across country,” petitioner advocates Madhu Mukul Tripathi and R P Arora said in the petition.

The petition said "non-implementation of provisions of National Policy on Education in respect of moral values in students is resulting in rampant corruption and erosion of moral values in all walks of life.”

It said erosion of moral values is hampering development and affecting the quality of life of people in India and no efforts are being made by the government to implement the policy on education.

The petition will come up for hearing on Wednesday.