The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed Telegram’s petition challenging the Centre’s temporary ban imposed in view of the NEET re-examination.
Justice Tejas Karia upheld the government’s decision. The court stated, “Considering the NEET re-exam, Telegram will remain banned until June 22nd.”
On June 16, the central government imposed a temporary ban on Telegram until June 22, ahead of the NEET re-exams. Telegram filed a petition against this in the Delhi High Court.
Centre cites cybercrime and paper leak concerns
The case was heard on Thursday by a bench led by Justice Tejas Karia, following a petition filed by Telegram challenging the restrictions imposed on the messaging platform.
In an affidavit submitted to the court, the Centre defended its decision, alleging that Telegram has been widely used for cybercrime activities, including exam paper leaks, child sexual abuse material, terrorism-related propaganda and financial fraud.
The government argued that the platform’s privacy and anonymity features have made it a preferred tool for criminal activity.
Telegram claims it removed NEET-related links
Representing Telegram, advocate Dhruv Mehta told the court that while the issue of exam leaks was widely known and had affected students, it was not justified to block an entire platform for a single incident.
The company stated that it had promptly removed flagged content within an hour of receiving specific URLs from authorities on June 9, and claimed to have taken down more than 900 links related to illegal NEET content.
Telegram also said it employs a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning tools and manual moderation to detect and remove violations of its policies.
NEET exam controversy and re-exam
The NEET-UG examination was held nationwide on May 3, 2026, with around 23 lakh candidates appearing.
Following allegations from multiple states regarding question paper leaks and advance access for some candidates, the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the exam on May 12 after irregularities were identified during investigation.
After a review by the Centre and investigating agencies, it was decided that the examination would be conducted again.
