Delhi High Court issues notice to Centre on Telegram’s challenge to temporary ban ahead of NEET exam

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Justice Tejas Karia directed the government to place its response by Thursday (June 18, 2026) and the matter will be heard at 2.30 p.m. File. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday (June 17, 2026) issued notice to the Union government on a petition filed by the Telegram messaging app against the Centre’s decision to suspend access to its services in India until June 22, citing concerns linked to the conduct of the NEET-UG re-examination.

Justice Tejas Karia directed the government to submit its response by Thursday (June 18, 2026) and that the matter will be heard at 2.30 p.m.

The matter stems from the Centre’s temporary suspension of Telegram amid concerns that organised cheating networks involved in the NEET-UG controversy were using the messaging app to circulate leaked or fabricated question papers and coordinate fraudulent activities.

The restrictions were issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act and will remain in force until June 22. A separate direction also requires Telegram to disable the editing of previously sent messages until June 30.

The government has defended the measures as necessary to safeguard the integrity of the NEET-UG re-examination scheduled for June 21, arguing that Telegram’s features could be exploited to spread misleading content and manipulate the timestamps of messages.

During the hearing, Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Centre, alleged that several channels on the platform were allegedly being used to offer leaked examination questions in exchange for money. He added that the authorities had repeatedly alerted the company to these concerns and shared specific examples, but the issues persisted.

Stating that the app had become a conduit for activities linked to examination malpractice, the Solicitor-General said, “If you give me time till tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., I will place shocking things before the court.”

Senior Advoc