Telegram goes to Delhi High Court against temporary ban order, hearing today

The platform has challenged the government's recent decision to impose a temporary ban on it in the run-up to the NEET UG re-test. The petition argues against the suspension of the messaging service and seeks relief from the court before the June 21 examination.

In Short

• Government blocks Telegram till June 22 to curb cheating and misinformation
• NTA denies any actual paper leak, cites rise in fake messages and scams
• Telegram CEO and digital rights groups criticise ban as unfair to millions of users

Messaging platform Telegram has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the Central government's decision to temporarily block access to the app ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination. The matter was mentioned before Justice Tejas Karia, who agreed to hear the plea later on Wednesday.

The challenge comes a day after the Centre, acting on recommendations from the National Testing Agency (NTA), imposed a temporary ban on Telegram until June 22, covering the June 21 NEET-UG re-test and its immediate aftermath. The government has maintained that the move is aimed at curbing cheating rackets, fraudulent paper leak claims and misinformation targeting candidates.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Tuesday issued the suspension order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, after references from the NTA and the Department of Higher Education.

The NEET-UG examination conducted on May 3 was cancelled following allegations of irregularities, prompting the re-examination scheduled for June 21.

WHY THE GOVERNMENT BANNED TELEGRAM

NTA Director General Abhishek Singh said the restriction was intended to ensure the examination is conducted without malpractice. "We will not let anything go wrong. We will take all possible actions to ensure that the examination is conducted without any malpractice," Singh said.

The NTA stressed that the action was not triggered by any actual paper leak. Instead, authorities said they were responding to a surge in fake messages and scams circulating online, which were causing anxiety among students.

According to the agency, Telegram channels operating under names such as "PAPER LEAKED NEET", "Re-NEET 2026", "Private Mafia" and "REE NEET MAFIAA" were allegedly demanding anywhere from a few thousand rupees to several lakhs from candidates and their families by falsely claiming access to the examination paper.

The NTA reiterated that no examination paper exists outside the secured examination chain and described all such claims as fraudulent.

The agency said the directions were issued only after intermediate measures, including channel and group takedowns coordinated by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), failed to produce the required platform-level response. It described the restrictions as a "measure of last resort" aimed at protecting candidates in the run-up to the examination.

MESSAGE-EDITING FEATURE ALSO RESTRICTED

Apart from restricting access to the platform, the government has directed Telegram to disable in India its message-editing feature for already-posted messages until June 30.

The NTA said the feature has been exploited in recent examinations to fabricate after-the-event "paper leak" evidence. Under the current system, administrators can edit older posts, including attached files such as PDFs, while retaining the original timestamp.

According to the agency, this allows operators to insert the actual question paper after an examination and then circulate screenshots as purported proof that it had been leaked beforehand.

The NTA said the temporary feature-specific restriction was aimed at preventing such manipulation during the post-examination period.

TELEGRAM CEO, RIGHTS GROUP CRITICISE MOVE

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov criticised the Indian government's decision, calling the temporary ban a mistake. In a post on X, Durov said banning Telegram punished more than 150 million ordinary users in India rather than those responsible for leaking or circulating examination material. He also said Telegram had removed hundreds of channels linked to leaked examination material and scams in recent weeks and had taken steps to make edited messages more transparent.

The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) also opposed the move, describing the shutdown as a "band-aid solution" and arguing that blocking an entire platform was a disproportionate response to examination fraud.

I4C, POLICE CRACK DOWN ON EXAM FRAUD NETWORKS

The NTA said the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs has been coordinating action against Telegram-based fraud networks targeting NEET candidates.

It cited a June 9 advisory issued by Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit warning students against fraudulent claims of pre-examination access to question papers. The agency also referred to action by the Ahmedabad City Cyber Crime Branch, which allegedly uncovered an inter-state cyber fraud racket operating eight Telegram channels linked to fake paper leak claims.

According to the NTA, the network handled transactions worth around Rs 1.5 crore through fraudulent bank accounts and contacted nearly 1,000 mobile numbers in a single month. Investigations are continuing in multiple states.

NEET RE-TEST TO GO AHEAD ON JUNE 21

While acknowledging inconvenience to legitimate Telegram users, the NTA said the platform restriction is limited to the period ending June 22 and that the message-editing curbs would not affect ordinary sending or receiving of new messages.

The agency reiterated that the re-examination will proceed as scheduled on June 21 and urged candidates to rely only on official NTA channels for information, while reporting suspicious offers or claims through the National Cyber Crime Helpline and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.

- Ends
With inputs from Aneesha Mathur