Telegram Moves Delhi HC Against India Ban Ahead of NEET Re-Test

Telegram has approached the Delhi High Court, challenging the Central government's decision to ban its operations in India until June 22, reported Bar and Bench.

The court agreed to hear the matter urgently, with Advocate Madhav Khosla mentioning it before a vacation bench of Justice Tejas Karia. Khosla told the bench that the government's decision directly affects over 150 million Telegram users in India.

The ban, issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricts access to the platform during the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination period and its immediate aftermath.

A second, parallel order requires Telegram to disable its message-editing feature for already posted messages in India until June 30, aiming to target the loophole that has been allegedly exploited to fabricate after-the-event "paper leak" evidence.

Telegram Founder's Response to Ban

Pavel Durov, Telegram founder and CEO, responded sharply in his post on X, saying that the measure punishes 150 million ordinary Telegram users in India and not the insiders who leaked the exam materials.

"...The ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps," he said.

In a separate post, the founder noted that over the preceding weeks, Telegram had proactively removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India.

He also highlighted that the platform was making its "edited" label more prominently visible to prevent backdating scams.

"Telegram is a force for good. Banning it, even temporarily, is a mistake," the CEO added.

NTA Backs Govt's Measures

In a detailed press release issued on 16 June, the National Testing Agency (NTA) defended the government's actions as a calibrated and time-bound measure of last resort.

According to the statement, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) had been coordinating the operational response and securing the takedown of a substantial number of Telegram channels, groups and bots that openly advertised fraudulent purposes, with names such as "PAPER LEAKED NEET," "Re-NEET 2026," "Private Mafia," and "REE NEET MAFIAA."

These channels, the NTA said, had been demanding money from a few thousand to several lakhs of rupees from candidates and their families in exchange for purported access to the re-examination paper.

The testing institution acknowledged that MeitY's directions will affect lakhs of citizens who use Telegram for various purposes, and said it sincerely regrets the inconvenience.