Telegram Moves Delhi High Court Against Centre's Temporary Ban On Platform Over NEET Exam Leak Concerns

Messaging platform Telegram has approached the Delhi High Court 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. The matter was mentioned before a vacation bench comprising Justice Tejas Karia, who allowed urgent listing for today.The move comes, following recommendations by the National Testing Agency and the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education.As per the plea, 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. “The Impugned Order does not justify why less restrictive alternatives, such as targeted takedowns of unlawful content were inadequate, or why the entirety of the Telegram application had to be blocked from public access,” the plea states.Telegram has submitted that the Impugned Order further does not consider or justify its impact on the 150 million Indian users, 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. “The Order further singles out the Petitioner No.1 while similarly situated intermediaries continue to operate without restriction, without any rational basis or comparative analysis, thereby violating Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” the plea said.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 today in respect of Telegram. The directions include:1. A direction under Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricting access to the Telegram platform in India for a defined and limited period ending 22 June 2026, covering the day of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination and its immediate aftermath; and2. A direction requiring the platform to disable, in India, the message-editing feature in respect of messages already posted, for a defined period ending 30 June 2026, addressing the specific structural feature through which the platform has been used to fabricate after-the-event “paper leak” evidence in respect of national examinations.NTA said that both measures have been taken in the interest of public order, in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled on 21 June 2026.NTA added that there are channels operating openly on the Telegram platform under names such as - “PAPER LEAKED NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia”, “REE NEET MAFIAA”, demanding sums ranging from a few thousand to several lakhs of rupees from candidates and their families, in exchange for purported access to the re-examination paper.It said:"The directions issued today by MeitY have been made following references by NTA and the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, drawing attention to the structural limits of channel-by-channel action and seeking graduated platform-level compliance. The directions are a measure of last resort, taken only after intermediate remedies, including the take-down action coordinated by I4C, had been pursued and had not produced, at the platform level, the response required to protect candidates in the runup to the examination. The calibration of the directions - a narrow platform-access restriction confined to the examination window, together with a feature-specific compliance direction for the post-examination period - reflects an effort to address the public-order concern with the minimum restriction necessary".

Telegram Moves Delhi High Court Against Centre's Temporary Ban On Platform Over NEET Exam Leak Concerns

Nupur Thapliyal

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Telegram Moves Delhi High Court Against Centre's Temporary Ban On Platform Over NEET Exam Leak Concerns

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