Telegram moves Delhi HC against ban before NEET re-test, plea to be heard today
Messaging platform Telegram has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the Central government's decision to temporarily block access to the app ahead of the NEET-UG
Messaging platform Telegram has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the Central government's decision to temporarily block access to the app ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, arguing that the measure unfairly impacts millions of legitimate users. The matter was mentioned before Justice Tejas Karia, who agreed to hear the plea later on Wednesday. The challenge comes a day after the Centre, acting on recommendations from the Testing Agency (NTA), imposed a temporary restriction on Telegram until June 22, covering the June 21 NEET-UG re-test and its immediate aftermath. The government has maintained that the move is aimed at curbing cheating rackets, fraudulent paper leak claims and misinformation targeting candidates.
Read Full Story The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued the suspension order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, after references from the NTA and the Department of Higher Education. WHY THE GOVERNMENT BANNED TELEGRAM NTA Director General Abhishek Singh said the restriction was intended to ensure the examination is conducted without malpractice. "We will not let anything go wrong. We will take all possible actions to ensure that the examination is conducted without any malpractice," Singh said. The NTA stressed that the action was not triggered by any actual paper leak. Instead, authorities said they were responding to a surge in fake messages and scams circulating online, which were causing anxiety among students.
According to the agency, Telegram channels operating under names such as "PAPER LEAKED NEET", "Re-NEET 2026", "Private Mafia" and "REE NEET MAFIAA" were allegedly demanding anywhere from a few thousand rupees to several lakhs from candidates and their families by falsely claiming access to the examination paper. The NTA reiterated that no examination paper exists outside the secured examination chain and described all such claims as fraudulent. MESSAGE-EDITING FEATURE ALSO RESTRICTED Apart from restricting access to the platform, the government has directed Telegram to disable in India its message-editing feature for already-posted messages until June 30. The NTA said the feature has been exploited in recent examinations to fabricate after-the-event "paper leak" evidence.
Under the current system, administrators can edit older posts, including attached files such as PDFs, while retaining the original timestamp. According to the agency, this allows operators to insert the actual question paper after an examination and then circulate screenshots as purported proof that it had been leaked beforehand. The NTA said the temporary feature-specific restriction was aimed at preventing such manipulation during the post-examination period. Ends
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