Popular messaging app Telegram has been blocked in India till June 22 as a precautionary measure ahead of Re-NEET (UG) 2026 examination. The editing option on the app has been disabled till June 30.
These directions were issued by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology based on the recommendations of National Testing Agency.
"Both measures have been taken in the interest of public order, in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled on 21 June 2026," NTA said in release on Tuesday, June 16.
This comes after bodies such as NTA, Department of Higher Education and Ministry of Education highlighted the structural limits of channel-by-channel action and requested for platform-level directive.
The NEET UG 2026 examination, conducted for admission to undergraduate medical and dental courses across India was conducted on May 3. The examination was cancelled later following serious allegations of a paper leak, sending shockwaves across the medical aspirant community.
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According to NTA, several channels were operating openly on Telegram with names that advertised their purpose such as “PAPER LEAKED NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia”, “REE NEET MAFIAA” and others. These channels allegedly demanded sums ranging from a few thousand to several lakhs of rupees from candidates and their families, in exchange for access to the re-examination paper.
The directive to disable Telegram's message-editing feature also aims address paper leak concerns. This feature, currently allows a channel administrator to edit the content of a previously posted message, including the substitution of attached files such as PDFs, while retaining the send-time stamp. This feature has been misused in recent exams to create fake “paper leak” claims. After the exam, a channel admin edits an old message to add the real question paper, making it look like it was shared earlier. The new rule aims to stops this by blocking such edits after the exam. It must be noted that dibaling the messaging edit function will not affect ordinary use of the Telegram for sending or receiving new messages.
NTA urged to report any fraudulent action to the National Cyber-Crime Helpline at 1930, or the National Cyber-Crime Reporting Portal at cybercrime.gov.in. The agency also has its own helplines to report such activities at 011-40759000 / 011-69227700 and neetug@nta.ac.in.
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