Telegram Moves Delhi High Court Against Temporary Ban Ahead Of NEET-UG Re-Test

Messaging platform Telegram has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the Central government's decision to temporarily block access to the platform ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination.

The matter was mentioned before Justice Tejas Karia, who agreed to hear the plea later on Wednesday.

Telegram argued that the temporary suspension disproportionately impacts millions of legitimate users while attempting to address examination-related misuse by a small number of bad actors.

Centre Defends Restriction Ahead Of NEET Re-Test

The challenge comes a day after the Centre, acting on recommendations of the National Testing Agency, imposed a temporary restriction on Telegram until June 22, covering the June 21 NEET-UG re-test and its immediate aftermath.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued the order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, following requests from the NTA and the Department of Higher Education.

Officials said the decision was intended to prevent cheating rackets, fake paper leak claims and misinformation after the original May 3 NEET-UG examination was cancelled over alleged irregularities.

NTA Director General Abhishek Singh said the agency was determined to ensure a malpractice-free examination.

"We will not let anything go wrong. We will take all possible actions to ensure that the examination is conducted without any malpractice," he said.

NTA Flags Fake Paper Leak Channels

According to the NTA, the action was not prompted by any confirmed paper leak but by the rapid spread of fraudulent messages targeting candidates.

The agency alleged that Telegram channels operating under names such as "PAPER LEAKED NEET", "Re-NEET 2026", "Private Mafia" and "REE NEET MAFIAA" were demanding payments ranging from a few thousand rupees to several lakh rupees by falsely claiming access to the examination paper.

The NTA reiterated that no examination paper exists outside its secured distribution chain and described all such claims as fraudulent.

Apart from restricting access to the platform, the government has directed Telegram to disable its message-editing feature in India for previously posted messages until June 30.

According to the NTA, the feature has been misused to edit old posts after examinations, insert the actual question paper while retaining the original timestamp, and falsely portray it as evidence of a prior paper leak.

The agency said the temporary restriction is intended to prevent such manipulation during the post-examination period.

Telegram, IFF Criticise Government Action

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov criticised the government's decision, calling the temporary ban a mistake.

In a post on X, Durov said the move punished more than 150 million ordinary users in India instead of those responsible for examination-related fraud. He added that Telegram had already removed hundreds of channels linked to leaked examination material and scams while improving transparency around edited messages.

The Internet Freedom Foundation also opposed the restrictions, describing the shutdown as a "band-aid solution" and arguing that blocking an entire platform was a disproportionate response to examination fraud.

While acknowledging inconvenience to genuine users, the NTA said the platform restriction would remain in force only until June 22 and that the message-editing curbs would not affect the sending or receiving of new messages.

The agency urged candidates to rely only on official NTA communication channels and report suspicious claims through the National Cyber Crime Helpline or the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.