Delhi High Court Reportedly Backs Pre-NEET Telegram Ban, Rejects Platform’s Appeal

The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected Telegram's plea that challenged the Centre's earlier decision to temporarily block access to the messaging platform ahead of the NEET 2026 re-examination. According to a report, the week-long restriction is imposed until 2022 and was ordered by the government to curb the circulation of leaked examination material before the medical entrance test takes place on June 21. The court is said to have upheld the blocking order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

Delhi High Court Backs Centre's Temporary Telegram Ban

Dismissing Telegram's challenge against the blocking order, Justice Tejas Karia expressed satisfaction with the procedure adopted by the Centre under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, Live Law reported. The messaging platform argued that the government had failed to provide adequate reasons for the restriction, but the argument was also rejected.

Telegram, meanwhile, argued that it had already taken extensive measures to curb the spread of unlawful content related to NEET 2026. The company reportedly told the court that it had removed more than 900 links associated with leaked examination material. It also claimed to have deployed AI and machine learning (ML) systems to proactively identify and take down such content.

The court, however, maintained that the Centre has the authority to block an entire platform under Section 69A when necessary. It also reportedly observed that the temporary restriction was indicative of the least restrictive option available under the circumstances. Thus, the temporary blocking order remains in effect until June 22, a day after the examination.

The publication reported that during earlier hearings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had informed the court that Telegram's bot-based infrastructure enabled automated accounts to distribute messages at scale, and that it happened without continuous human intervention. He further argued that blocked bots can easily be mirrored and redirected to alternate channels, making enforcement difficult.

Telegram's access in the country was temporarily restricted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on June 16, claiming that it was being misused to spread misinformation and distribute leaked exam papers. This development occurred after the NEET (UG) 2026 exam was cancelled amidst reports of paper leaks in multiple states. Reports surfaced that some leaked questions were shared via the social media platform.

Following MeitY's decision to restrict access to the messaging platform, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov took to X to criticise the decision. Durov argued that the restriction penalised over 150 million ordinary Telegram users in India, instead of those responsible for leaking examination papers. The Telegram official further claimed that the ban had failed to stop the circulation of leaked content, alleging that such material simply migrated to other platforms.

In a subsequent post, the Telegram CEO also accused Indian telecom service provider (TSP) Reliance of disrupting Telegram access for users outside the country through a method called Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) hijacking. BGP hijacking, notably, is a malicious rerouting of internet traffic where attackers often falsely announce ownership of a group of IP addresses that they do not own, control, or route to.

As per Durov's claims, it affected users in the UAE, and the disruption was allegedly linked to competitive tensions involving Meta-owned WhatsApp.

However, the telecom operator refuted these claims on Thursday. "Recent posts on X have led to speculation regarding Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (AS55836) and a BGP route misconfiguration. We categorically clarify that Jio has not been involved in any such incident. Jio continues to operate its network in accordance with global Internet routing best practices and the highest standards of reliability, security, and transparency," the telco said in a statement on X.