Messaging platform Telegram on Wednesday approached the Delhi High Court challenging the temporary restrictions imposed on its services in India ahead of the NEET UG re-examination scheduled for June 21. The matter is been looked by Justice Tajas Karia and is expected to be heard later in the day.
The matter was put up by Telegram founder Pavel Durov in the Supreme Court of India, after the Central government had put temporary restriction on access to Telegram across India until June 22. The move was welcomed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which stated that the measure was intended to curb misinformation and fraudulent activities targeting NEET UG candidates during the examination period.
“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 app,” Durov said in a post on X.
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. https://t.co/CzQWN4mXfb
— Pavel Durov (@durov) June 16, 2026
Defending the government’s decision, NTA Director General Abhishek Singh said, “People can operate some channels by using VPN or they can operate from outside India. But the fact is that the lack of students who are accessing them, they will not be able to access that. Even though they can continue operating them channels, but if there is no clientele, the fraud will be prevented and the students will be protected from losing money and from wasting their time in chasing fake question paper.”, quoted in a report by Hindusthan Times.
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The NEET UG examination was originally conducted on May 3 but was subsequently cancelled following allegations of irregularities and question paper leaks. Authorities are now preparing for the re-examination scheduled for June 21 under enhanced monitoring measures.
The NTA said investigations revealed that Telegram’s message-editing feature had been misused in recent examinations. According to the agency, some individuals allegedly edited previously posted messages after exams had concluded to create false claims of question paper leaks and mislead students.
