Delhi High Court upholds Telegram ban in India over NEET paper leak concerns
Follow UsThe Delhi High Court has dismissed Telegram's plea
The government's measures were "least restrictive, High Court said
Telegram had argued it was singled out compared to other platforms
The Delhi High Court has sustained the central government’s order temporarily blocking Telegram in India until 22 June. The High Court in its verdict has dismissed a legal challenge filed by Telegram. Justice Tejas Karia delivered the verdict, ruling that the government’s measures were “least restrictive” and that the order could not be seen as unreasonable.
SurveyAs reported earlier, the ban was issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, following the detection of cheating rackets that used Telegram channels to defraud students appearing for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination. A separate order requiring Telegram to disable its message-editing feature in India remains in effect until 30 June, targeting the specific method used to fabricate fake paper leak evidence after an exam concludes.
Also Read: India bans Telegram over NEET re-examination row: Full story in 5 points
What the High Court said
The High Court bench held that the government had strictly followed the procedural steps required under Section 69A and that the order did not suffer from non-application of mind, rejecting Telegram’s central argument that the decision to block its messaging service lacked adequate reasoning. The court also found that, given the emergency nature of the order, the reasons supplied at the time were sufficient.
During the hearing, the Centre argued that the public interest in the matter extended to crores of students whose concerns about alleged paper leaks could not be dismissed. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that Telegram’s architecture made it structurally difficult for the platform to take the kind of action required and pointed out that the platform’s own privacy policy results in the deletion of all account data, messages and media upon account deletion, which limits accountability after the fact. He also flagged a law-and-order risk if the ban were lifted before the re-examination, telling the court that Telegram would not be able to take responsibility if something went wrong as a result.
Attorney General R Venkataramani argued in stronger terms, describing the Telegram’s architecture as a “Frankenstein” and arguing that preventive action was necessary precisely because the platform’s design made after-the-fact moderation unreliable. He dismissed Telegram’s reliance on proportionality as “completely misconceived” given the scale of potential harm involved.
What Telegram argued
Telegram, represented by Senior Advocate Dhruv Mehta, argued that the government had singled out the platform while other intermediaries continued to operate without similar restrictions, calling this a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. The company said it had held multiple meetings with government agencies since May and had submitted detailed responses outlining both proactive and reactive moderation efforts.
Telegram further stated that after receiving specific URLs from authorities on 9 June, it removed the flagged content within an hour and that it had taken down more than 900 links related to unlawful NEET-related content using a combination of AI, machine learning tools and manual moderation. Mehta also questioned the wording of the original blocking order, which cited concerns relating to the sovereignty and integrity of India, arguing that an examination-related matter did not meet that threshold and reflected a lack of proper application of mind by the ministry. The Delhi High Court was not persuaded by these arguments and ruled in favour of the government’s order as issued.
What this means going forward
With the court’s ruling, the platform-access restriction in India remains in force until 22 June, the day after the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination and the message-editing restriction remains in place until 30 June, as previously reported. Telegram’s legal challenge to the underlying order has now failed, though it remains to be seen whether the company will pursue any further appeal.
Read More: Telegram ban: Exam leaks, piracy, fake chatbots and why this was needed
