Delhi HC denies interim relief to Telegram against ban

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to grant immediate interim relief to Telegram against the Centre’s temporary ban on the instant messaging platform ahead of the June 21 re-examination of NEET-UG.

Hearing the application’s urgent petition, Justice Tejas Karia issued a notice to the Center seeking a response to the challenge against the blocking order.

Telegram’s legal representative argued that the government regulation contained no valid grounds for blocking the platform. In response, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union government, said he had specific information, including user IDs, and had alerted the platform to the issue and asked it to fix its systems. “They called them repeatedly and told them these are problems and you fix your system. But they couldn’t.”

Telegram argued that the ban harms its business interests and disrupts services for millions of users. However, the court refused to suspend the government’s action at this stage.

The Center has blocked Telegram till June 22 under Section 69A of the IT Act, citing concerns about a paper leak. The matter will be heard again on Thursday.

Mint’s e-mail inquiries to the Ministry of Education and Telegram went unanswered.

Preventive measures

The temporary ban was imposed to prevent misuse of Telegram by groups allegedly circulating leaked written exams and misleading candidates.

The NEET-UG exam was conducted on May 3 and nearly 2.28 lakh candidates appeared in more than 5,000 centers across the country. However, allegations of a paper leak sparked widespread protests and an investigation, leading authorities to cancel the results and schedule a new test.

In addition to blocking access to Telegram, the government has also ordered the platform to disable the message editing feature for previously sent messages in India by June 30.

The order was issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000, which empowers the government to order intermediaries to block access to online content in the interests of sovereignty, security and public order.

Telegram strongly objected to the decision.

In response to the government’s measures, Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov said the move punishes millions of legitimate users while failing to deter real criminals who have escaped scrutiny.

“This decision punishes more than 150 million Telegram users in the country, not the insiders who leaked the exam materials. And the ban didn’t stop anything. The leaks just moved to other apps,” Durov said in a post on X.