Delhi High Court Upholds Centre's Temporary Ban Of Telegram App Ahead Of NEET-UG Exam

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 misinformation regarding paper-leak ahead of NEET 2026 Re-Examination, which is scheduled on June 21.The Centre had also ordered to disable the message-editing feature of the app till June 30, which also met with the Court's approval.Justice Tejas Karia, pronouncing the order, expressed satisfaction with the procedure followed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to restrict access to the platform, given the emergency nature of the issue. The bench rejected the challenge based on the non-supply of reasons.The Court held that the Centre was empowered under Section 69A IT Act to entirely block a platform, and that the measure satisfied the tests of proportionality, as it was a necessary and the least restrictive course.The Court said that the unique features of the app - public channels with large members, presence of bots which can disseminate information without human intervention, concealment of phone numbers, feature enabling editing of a message without timelimit - made it a potential tool to spread misinformation. Even if a particular channel is removed, it can be easily duplicated in the app, the Court noted. "As a result, illicit activity may resume within a short period notwithstanding takedown action against the original channel," the Court said.Regarding the editing feature, the Court said, "Telegram permits messages, including files, to be edited at a later point in time. Such functionality may be employed to disseminate misinformation by editing messages sent prior in time by replacing the attachment to give impression that the examination paper was leaked prior to the examination even though such editing takes place after conclusion of the examination. Accordingly, any subsequent editing of messages relating to NEET UG, 2026 may mislead general public and, consequently, give rise to a potential public order situation."The Court noted that the ban was only a temporary measure, and was "narrowly tailored" to meet a specific objective. The decision satisfied the four tests of proportionality laid down by the Supreme Court in the Anuradha Bhasin case : (i) identification of a legitimate objective; (ii) existence of a rational nexus between the objective and the measure adopted; (iii) necessity of the measure in the facts and circumstances of the case; and (iv) adoption of the least restrictive measure available.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 & ORSCitation: 2026 LiveLaw (Del) 574Click Here To Read/Download Order

Delhi High Court Upholds Centre's Temporary Ban Of Telegram App Ahead Of NEET-UG Exam

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The Court held that the measure satisfied the test of proportionality.

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Delhi High Court Upholds Centre's Temporary Ban Of Telegram App Ahead Of NEET-UG Exam

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The Court held that the measure satisfied the test of proportionality.

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