New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on a petition that has sought the scrapping of the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) held on May 1 after a paper leak delayed the test by three hours.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna asked the CBSE, the nodal agency for conducting the exam, to respond by May 18, the next date of hearing.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) which asked that the May 1 exam, taken by over 12 lakh students for around 26,816 engineering and architecture seats in colleges across the country, be scrapped and all students be allowed to take the rescheduled test.

On Sunday, the national-level examination was delayed by nearly three hours after the paper was leaked in Uttar Pradesh and its copies were sold for Rs.6 lakh each.

At many centres, the examination was cancelled and many students could not appear as the new timings clashed with the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) entrance examination.

Earlier, parents of some of the students approached the court and said the candidates who will appear for the rescheduled exam May 11, had an advantage over those who gave the entrance test on May 1.

"The students who will appear subsequently in the exam rescheduled by CBSE for May 11 will have the advantage of studying more and preparing better for the exams," the petition said.

The parents said that Sunday's exam should be declared null and void and fresh exam should be held for all students aspiring to join the engineering stream in colleges across the country. IANS