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Informist, Wednesday, Jun. 17, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Telegram FZ-LLC Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court against the government's temporary ban on the messaging application till Jun. 22, ahead of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test re-examination on Jun. 21. The ban came after the country's key undergraduate medical entrance examination was cancelled earlier this year due to allegations of widespread paper leak and irregularities. It has been alleged that the Telegram application was used to circulate leaked questions and communicate with students, middlemen and others linked to the network.

 

Justice Tejas Karia will hear Telegram's plea on Wednesday. 

 

Telegram has also been directed to disable the message-editing feature for messages already posted till Jun. 30. The National Testing Agency said the feature has been used "to fabricate after-the-event 'paper leak' evidence in case of several recent examinations". It claimed that a channel administrator "edits an older, innocuous message to insert the actual question paper after the examination has been conducted, and the resulting chat is then circulated as purported 'evidence' that the paper was in circulation before the examination".

 

The blocking order against Telegram has been issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Section 69(A) gives the government the power to issue directions for blocking public access of any information through any computer resource, where it is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence.

 

The National Testing Agency, which conducts the examination, said that over the last few weeks, Telegram channels operating openly on the platform demanded sums ranging from a few thousand to several lakhs of rupees from candidates and their families, in exchange for purported access to the re-examination paper. As per the agency, some of these channels were openly advertising their purpose through their names 'Paper Leaked NEET', 'Re-NEET 2026', 'Private Mafia', and 'Ree Neet Mafiaa'. 

 

The medical entrance examination was conducted on May 3, but cancelled days later following reports of alleged question paper leak. The National Testing Agency has faced flak from candidates and parents for its inability to secure the question paper.  End 

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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