Telegram has launched legal action against Indian government's order to halt its services countrywide. This comes just before NEET UG 2026 reexamination on June 21. Case was brought to Vacation Bench of Justice Tejas Karia at Delhi High Court,set to hear it later today.
Government's restrictions arise from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) directives under Section 69A of Information Technology Act. National Testing Agency (NTA) pushed for these measures due to fears of cheating and misinformation surrounding exam .
On June 16,Union government announced Telegram's operations would be curbed until June 22, covering exam day and aftermath. NTA assessed earlier measures,like channel takedowns, were not enough to stop paper leaks and fraud.
Authorities also ordered Telegram to disable message-editing feature in India till June 30. NTA argues this feature has been used to fake evidence of paper leaks by changing messages while keeping original timestamps .
Several channels, including Paper Leaked NEET,ReNEET 2026,and Private Mafia, reportedly demanded payments from candidates for supposed exam papers. Amidst this,Telegram's founder and CEO, Pavel Durov,slammed suspension,saying it affects over 150 million Indian users.
“The IT ministry has banned Telegram for one week because some users allegedly shared leaked examination questions,impacting millions of legitimate users of the platform,”Durov posted on social media platform X. He noted Telegram had already axed hundreds of channels sharing leaked materials and scams targeting students in India.
To fight misuse,Durov said company is boosting visibility of edited label on messages to block backdating scams and timestamp manipulation. Meanwhile,following government's order,both Google and Apple have yanked Telegram from their app stores in India.
NEET UG 2026 reexamination happening after allegations of paper leaks during original exam on May 3…
