Delhi HC rejects Telegram’s challenge against temporary ban ahead of NEET-UG retest

The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld the Centre’s move to temporarily restrict access to the Telegram messaging app ahead of the June 21 NEET-UG re-exam, holding the order was “not disproportionate”.

While pronouncing the judgement, a vacation bench of Justice Tejas Karia said the Centre’s order was “least restrictive” and the government was empowered to direct blocking of access to Telegram.

A detailed order is awaited.

Telegram’s counsel had questioned the legality of the government order blocking the platform. He had said that over 150 million users had been affected by the Centre’s action.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) had on May 12 cancelled the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG, held on May 3 for medical admissions amid allegations of paper leak.

The CBI is investigating the matter and a re-test is scheduled on June 21.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), acting on recommendations of the NTA, had issued a direction on June 16 under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricting access to the Telegram platform in India till June 22, covering the day of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-exam and its immediate aftermath.

A separate direction had also asked Telegram to disable in India the message-editing feature for already-posted messages till June 30, 2026, addressing the specific structural feature through which the platform has been used to fabricate after-the-event “paper leak” evidence in respect of national examinations.