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The Delhi High Court on Thursday (June 18, 2026) reserved its judgment on the plea challenging a temporary ban on Telegram messaging platform ahead of the upcoming NEET-UG re-examination. This comes two days after the Centre’s decision to suspend access to the platform services in India until June 22, citing concerns linked to the conduct of the retest.
In the hearing, the Centre said it has been repeatedly asking Telegram messaging app to take proactive measures to keep a check on illegal and suspicious channels. Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta submitted the Court that “nothing was done” about the matter.
Citing “architectural flaws”, Mr. Mehta justified the requirement of a temporary ban on Telegram, announced on June 16, ahead of the re-examination on June 21. “The exam will be taken by over 22 lakh students and even their families are attached to them. If our assumptions turn true then there can be a law and order situation.”
Responding to the government’s allegations, Telegram says, “We have suggested blocking device level”.
Those who commit crime cannot be tracked: Govt. submission
Mr. Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said most channels on the platform are bots. “In Telegram, one account can create 40 bots. In WhatsApp it’s one bot per user,” he said, citing a Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) report. The report says that Telegram’s platform is not competent enough to deal with the something like current situation, unlike other similar messaging apps, the government submission noted.
He noted that the platform operates through the cloud infrastructure. “Those who commit crime cannot be tracked”.
“Telegram has faced actions of terror activities by other countries. Other countries have also take action on the platform due to its usage which objectionable,” he said, adding that the government has submitted a list of action taken against Telegram by other countries.
“The entie population of a channel, around a lakh, can be moved to another channel in seconds. This is uniquely to Telegram and poses a serious risk,” Mr. Mehta added.
Can you block users’ rights to safeguard someone else’s right, Court asks
During the hearing, the Court questioned the government’s submission, asking whether rights of those using the app can be curtailed “because some people are misusing it”.
“Can you block someone else’s rights to safeguard someone else’s right?,” it asked
To this, Mr. Mehta said: “When internet is banned in a State or in some part of the State, there is just 10% people who are miscreants and the rest are the general public.”
Further, he contended that Telegram can be misused because of the app feature which allows editing of date and time. “In 2024, this has happened. The question paper was posted after exam was conducted, but they edited date to previous day of exam and then students were protesting on roads alleging that the paper was leaked.”
R. Venkatramani, Attorney General of India, spoke for the government and maintained that there is full application of mind before blocking the app and that there is a “law and order situation” looming large over the authorities. “If our country cannot take preventive action, where will we go?”
The matter stems from the Centre’s temporary suspension of Telegram amid concerns that organised cheating networks involved in the NEET-UG controversy were using the messaging app to circulate leaked or fabricated question papers and coordinate fraudulent activities.
The restrictions were issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act and will remain in force until June 22. A separate direction also requires Telegram to disable the editing of previously sent messages until June 30.
Published – June 18, 2026 03:57 pm IST
