Telegram Ban Stays: Delhi HC Rejects Plea Ahead of NEET-UG Re-Test

The Delhi High Court on Friday declined to grant relief to Telegram, upholding the government's decision to temporarily ban the app ahead of the NEET-UG re-examination on June 21. The court said the Centre had followed due process and was empowered under Section 69A of the IT Act to block the platform, as per multiple reports.

Delhi High Court judge Tejas Karia ruled that the government's orders banning the app were reasoned and had strictly followed legal procedure. Justice Karia noted that the government's proactive measures were the least restrictive option available, and that it could not be held that the order was disproportionate or lacked application of mind, as alleged by Telegram.

Why The Ban Was imposed

The ban was ordered at the request of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which said cheating rackets were using Telegram in an organised way to defraud candidates ahead of the NEET-UG re-exam on June 21. The block is set to remain in place for a week, until June 22, and was enforced within hours by telecom companies, Google and Apple, taking the app offline and removing it from app stores.

Appearing before the court on Thursday, the government argued that Telegram's design and privacy features have turned it into what it called the "new dark web," used by cybercriminals, fraud networks, extremist groups and those behind exam paper leaks. This claim leaned on findings from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which has flagged the app as a hub for illegal activity, according to a report by The Hindu.

Representing Telegram, senior advocate Dhruv Mehta countered that the government had not justified invoking emergency powers, and questioned why authorities chose to block the entire app instead of targeting specific content.

The ban followed days of private exchanges in which the government rebuked Telegram for not proactively removing accounts offering purported leaked exam papers, according to a Reuters report. In its court filing, Telegram called the government's account of these meetings one sided and inaccurate, saying it omitted details of the company's proactive steps. The company said it had taken down more than 900 links involving unlawful exam related content.

Telegram has more than 150 million users in India, its largest market. Founder Pavel Durov has publicly criticised the ban, saying it punishes the platform's users while exam leaks move to other platforms.

Durov's Allegations Against Reliance

Hours after the ban, Durov accused Reliance of disrupting access to Telegram for users outside India through BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) hijacking, and suggested a rival with a financial stake in Reliance may have lobbied for the ban. He named the network identifier AS18101 and urged global network operators to reject routing announcements from it.

The network Durov referred to belongs to Reliance Communications, not Reliance Jio. The two are separate entities. Reliance Communications, previously run by Anil Ambani, has been under insolvency and liquidation proceedings since 2019.