The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice on a plea filed by messaging platform Telegram challenging the decision of the Central Government to temporarily restrict access to Telegram in India till June 22, to prevent paper-leak ahead of NEET 2026 Re-Examination which is scheduled on June 21.

Justice Tejas Karia allowed Centre's request to file a reply by tomorrow and listed the matter at 2.30pm.

No interim relief has been granted to Telegram as of now. "Learned Solicitor General said that nothing will happen overnight," the judge said.

At the outset, Justice Karia asked the Centre if its action against the platform was "proportionate".

To this, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta responded that the platform was "repeatedly called" to correct its system but, they failed to do so and as a consequence, the exam material was leaked.

Senior counsel appearing for for Telegram on the other hand claimed that the platform immediately took down the offending links shared with it. "This is within an hour we received the email. They provided another list and I abided by that too. Where is that consideration in the order?"

The counsel further alleged Centre's non-compliance with Rule 9 of the IT (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules which is an emergency provision that allows the Centre to block online content in urgent situations.

He submitted that no satisfaction of emergency situation was recorded. "This has been going on from June 1. What is the emergency? Suddenly this happens. When i give my response on June 9 that i have deleted everything, you do nothing and then this is done suddenly?"

Mehta however responded, "This has not happened overnight. We have been dealing with them since May, complaints received since May."

Further, Telegram's counsel submitted that complete blocking of the platform was disproportionate. "You need to block particular information. This is overboard order. You don't completely block the platform...Order suffers from arbitrariness. Lakhs of students are getting study material, apart from educators, there are business prospects also. You block everything. 150 million users in the country."

Mehta then sought time to file a reply in the matter, adding "I will justify emergency powers by facts and figures. Your lordships will be shocked."

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

Telegram asserts 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.

It adds that Impugned Order is grossly disproportionate, affecting a blanket shutdown of a platform with over 150 Million users in India, including lakhs of students and educators who rely on the platform to prepare for competitive examinations – including NEET.

Telegram has further averred that it was not given a hearing as mandated under Rule 8 of the 2009 Rules – even though it was actively engaging with all authorized agencies over the past several weeks.

Responding to the action, Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov in an X post said that the action punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India, and not the “insiders” who leaked the exam materials.

“And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps. Over the past few weeks, we removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India. We're also making the “edited” label more visible to prevent backdating scams. Telegram is a force for good. Banning it — even temporarily — is a mistake,” the post added.

National Testing Agency (NTA) in a press release issued yesterday, welcomed the directions issued in respect of Telegram.

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