Telegram Files Plea in Delhi HC Over Temporary Restrictions in India

Telegram, a messaging platform, has gone to the Delhi High Court (HC) to contest the MeitY's decision to impose a temporary restriction, which was notified only one day ago. The case was reportedly brought before Justice Tejas Karia's vacation bench, which has agreed to hear it later today.

To set the scene, on June 21, just before the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination, the Indian government decided to temporarily block access to the platform until June 22. The decision was made in accordance with the National Testing Agency's (NTA) recommendations.

Telegram’s Pavel Durov Posting Disappointment on X

Google and Apple both withdrew the Telegram app from their respective Indian app stores after MeitY made its decision. Although current users were granted access to the platform at the outset, new users have encountered difficulties when trying to create new accounts. The platform is currently inaccessible regardless of device or previous usage. Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, took to his official X feed to say that the move punishes almost 150 million users in India unfairly rather than banning the individuals accountable for leaking exam materials.

“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,” Durov said.

Furthermore, he asserted that the limitation was ineffective in preventing the dissemination of leaked material. He further stated that this behaviour in question had instead relocated to alternative platforms. According to Durov's separate tweet, Reliance, an Indian telecom operator, was allegedly using BGP hijacking to block Telegram from reaching users outside of India. Simply said, BGP hijacking occurs when an unauthorised party corrupts Internet routing tables maintained by the border gateway protocol in order to legitimately take over groups of IP addresses.

NTA’s Allegations on Telegram

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has maintained that the NEET (UG) 2026 question paper leak was associated with organised cheating rackets using Telegram. In addition, the testing agency said that the site was utilised to disseminate fraudulent information and circulate unfounded allegations of document leaks. It was claimed by the agency that the message-editing capability of Telegram allowed channel managers to change previously published postings and attach real question papers after the test, all while maintaining the original timestamp attached.

This led some to believe, incorrectly, that the papers had been leaked before the examination. It said that the platform was home to other Telegram channels, such as "PAPER LEAKED NEET", "Re-NEET 2026", "Private Mafia", and "REE NEET MAFIAA". Some channels were allegedly offering applicants and their families access to the exam paper in return for payment. The governing board justified the actions by saying they were necessary to keep the peace in the lead-up to the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination on June 21. Protests from students were prevalent after the NTA cancelled the NEET-UG 2026 exam, which had been scheduled for May 3, due to a multi-state paper leak.

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