NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre's response to a petition challenging the grant of seven extra marks to all candidates who had appeared for the IIT-Joint Entrance examination for advance course.

The extra marks were granted in the wake of a printing error in a Hindi language paper.

Issuing notice to the Human Resource Development Ministry, a vacation bench of Justice Abhey Manohar Sapre and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul refused to interfere with the counselling that commenced on Friday.

The court also issued notice to IIT Madras which had organised the exam for 2017.

Senior counsel Sushma Suri, appearing for the students, who were likely to be adversely affected by the decision, urged the court to say that all admissions would be subject to the outcome of the plea before the court.

The next hearing would be on July 7.

All the candidates across the board were granted seven marks -- three for chemistry and four for mathematics.