The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected the petition filed by Telegram challenging the Centre's decision to block the messaging platform till June 22, to prevent paper-leak ahead of NEET 2026 Re-Examination which is scheduled on June 21.

Justice Tejas Karia, pronouncing the order, expressed satisfaction with the procedure followed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to restrict the access to the platform, given the emergency nature of the issue. The bench rejected the challenge based on non-supply of reasons.

The Court held that the Centre was empowered under Section 69A IT Act to block a platform, and that the measure satisfied the tests of proportionality, as it was a necessary and the least restrictive course.

The temporary blocking order against Telegram was passed following recommendations by the National Testing Agency and the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education.

Telegram asserted that it has put in place proactive measures by taking down more than 900 links involving unlawful NEET-related content, including the deployment of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools as proactive measures to address unlawful information on the platform.

Centre on the other hand claimed that the technical and architectural features of the platform were such that enable creation and deployment of automated accounts through bots, capable of disseminating bulk communications without continuous human intervention. "Once a Bot is blocked, it can mirror channel, i.e. it is automatically redirected to another Bot," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had told the Court.

During the course of hearing, the Judge had orally asked the Centre if rights of 150 million users could be blocked just because one set of citizens (NEET aspirants) are appearing in an exam.

Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov had also issued a statement, claiming that Centre's action punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India, and not the “insiders” who leaked the exam materials.

Case Title: TELEGRAM FZ LLC & ANR v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS