Messaging app Telegram has moved to Delhi High Court against the government's decision to block the platform ahead of NEET UG re-test 2026, ANI reported.
The matter was listed before the bench of justice Tajas Karia who agreed to hear the case today. The development after government temporarily banned Telegram in India till June 22 as a precautionary measure aimed to NEET UD- re test paper leak. 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.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued directions to temporarily ban Telegram based on the recommendations of NTA.
"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.
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Telegram Founder Pavel Durov criticised the ban in a social media post, saying it punishes 15 crore app users in India.
"India's IT ministry banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions. This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India — not the insiders who leaked the exam materials. And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps," Durov wrote on X.
The NEET UG 2026 examination is scheduled to be conducted again on June 21, 2026, days after the examination was cancelled over serious allegations of paper leak. The restriction on Telegram app has been imposed in response to alleged use of the platform to enable paper leak.
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