The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued an emergency order on June 16, 2026, directing telecom operators and app stores to block access to Telegram across India until June 22. The directive, issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, came on the recommendation of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which reported a surge in organised cheating rackets operating on the platform in the run-up to the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination scheduled for June 21. In a separate but related direction, MeitY also ordered Telegram to disable its message-editing feature for Indian users until June 30, a move aimed at preventing the fabrication of fake paper-leak evidence after the exam.
Why Telegram Was Blocked
The NTA had been monitoring Telegram for weeks before the re-examination and found that several channels were openly advertising access to the NEET-UG question paper in exchange for payments ranging from a few thousand to several lakh rupees. Channels with names like “PAPER LEAKED NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia”, and “REE NEET MAFIAA” were actively defrauding candidates and their families.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which operates under the Ministry of Home Affairs, had been coordinating takedown actions against these channels. But the NTA said that channel-by-channel removal proved ineffective. Telegram’s architecture allowed new mirror channels and groups to spring up almost immediately after existing ones were taken down, making granular moderation nearly impossible.
The NTA described the platform-level action as a “measure of last resort”. It said that intermediate remedies, including coordinated takedown efforts through I4C, had been pursued but failed to produce the required response at the platform level to protect candidates in the run-up to the exam. The agency reiterated that no genuine question paper existed outside the secured examination chain and that every promise of such material was a fraud.
What Section 69A of the IT Act Says
Section 69A was inserted into the Information Technology Act, 2000 through the 2008 amendment. It empowers the Central Government to direct any government agency or intermediary to block public access to any information generated, transmitted, received, stored, or hosted on any computer resource. The power can be exercised on specific grounds: the sovereignty and integrity of India, the defence of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order.
Section 2(1)(v) of the IT Act defines “information” broadly to include data, text, images, sound, voice, codes, computer programmes, software, and databases. It was this expansive definition that the government relied on to argue that an entire application or platform could be treated as “information” and therefore blocked.
The Procedure and Safeguards
The Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009 lay down the detailed process for exercising this power. A Designated Officer, not below the rank of Joint Secretary in MeitY, is appointed to handle blocking requests. A review committee comprising representatives from the Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and CERT-In examines each request.
Under Rule 9 of these rules, the Designated Officer can pass an interim emergency blocking order when delay is not acceptable. Such an order must be ratified by the statutory committee within 48 hours. In the Telegram case, the government invoked this emergency procedure on June 16, and the committee confirmed the block on June 18 after hearing Telegram’s submissions.
Constitutional Validity
The constitutional validity of Section 69A was upheld by the Supreme Court in the landmark Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015) judgment. The court ruled that the provision contained adequate procedural safeguards and was not a violation of the fundamental right to free speech under Article 19(1)(a), as long as the restrictions satisfied the “reasonable restrictions” test under Article 19(2).
The NEET-UG 2026 Controversy: Background
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), commonly known as NEET-UG, is India’s single-largest entrance examination for admission to undergraduate medical and dental programmes. It is conducted by the NTA, an autonomous body established in November 2017 under the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education. The NTA is headquartered in New Delhi and also conducts other major exams including JEE-Main, CUET, and CMAT.
The Original Exam and Its Cancellation
The NEET-UG 2026 examination was originally held on May 3, 2026, with over 2.27 million candidates appearing. Soon after the exam, allegations emerged that a “guess paper” circulating among coaching centres in Sikar, Rajasthan, had contained questions matching nearly 140 out of 200 in the actual test. A local chemistry teacher, Shashikant Suthar, alerted authorities after comparing the circulated material with the official paper.
The Rajasthan Police Special Operations Group (SOG) launched an investigation, and the matter was referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On May 12, 2026, the government cancelled the examination and announced a re-test on June 21, 2026. The cancellation marked the first full cancellation of a NEET-UG exam since the NTA took over its conduct in 2019.
The Re-examination Security Arrangements
For the re-examination, the NTA put in place unprecedented security measures. Question paper setters were kept in strict isolation. The paper movement was tracked under multi-layer monitoring involving central security agencies. On June 9, 2026, the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan held meetings with intelligence agencies and social media platforms, warning them to identify and remove fake channels spreading misinformation about the exam.
How Cheating Rackets Operated on Telegram
The government’s blocking order targeted two distinct forms of fraud being carried out on Telegram.
The Fake Paper Sale Scam
Channels operating openly on Telegram demanded payments ranging from a few thousand to several lakh rupees in exchange for purported access to the NEET-UG re-examination paper. The NTA repeatedly issued public warnings that no question paper existed outside the secured examination chain and that all such claims were fraudulent. These channels used automated bots and large broadcast groups to reach thousands of candidates at once, exploiting the anxiety surrounding the high-stakes exam.
The Message-Editing Exploit
The second and more sophisticated form of fraud involved Telegram’s message-editing feature. Telegram allows channel administrators to edit previously posted messages while retaining the original timestamp. Crucially, administrators can also replace attached files, including PDFs, after publication.
The NTA said this feature had been exploited in recent examinations by inserting the actual question paper into an older, innocuous message after the exam had concluded. The edited post would then be circulated as purported evidence that the paper had been in circulation before the exam. This fabricated “proof” was used to defraud future candidates and undermine confidence in the examination system. The government’s direction to disable this feature until June 30 was specifically aimed at closing this avenue of post-exam fabrication.
The Delhi High Court Challenge
Telegram challenged the government’s blocking order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that Section 69A only permitted blocking of individual posts, URLs, or messages, not an entire platform. The company contended that the temporary ban affected over 150 million users in India and was disproportionate to the stated objective.
The Government’s Defense
In court, the government argued that Telegram had evolved into what it described as a “new dark web”, a hub for cybercriminals, fraud networks, and paper-leak syndicates. The Solicitor General submitted that Telegram had been given a hearing by the review committee before the ban was confirmed, and that the procedural requirements of the 2009 Blocking Rules had been fully complied with.
The government highlighted that it had first attempted targeted takedowns of individual channels, sending Telegram a list of over 1,300 URLs on June 9. Telegram claimed to have disabled around 900 of these, but mirror channels and bots allowed the illegal content to reappear almost instantly.
The Verdict
On June 19, 2026, Justice Tejas Karia dismissed Telegram’s petition and upheld the government’s order. The court held that the definition of “information” under Section 2(1)(v) of the IT Act explicitly includes “codes”, “computer programmes”, and “software”. Since an application or platform is built on software and code, it falls within the ambit of Section 69A and can be blocked in its entirety.
The court also held that the government had passed the test of proportionality. It had identified a legitimate objective, established a rational nexus between the objective and the measure, demonstrated the necessity of the measure, and adopted the least restrictive option available. The court noted that the block was temporary, confined to the examination window, and accompanied by a feature-specific restriction for the post-examination period.
Broader Implications
The Delhi High Court ruling is a landmark judgment in India’s internet governance landscape. For the first time, a court has ruled that an entire digital platform can be considered “information” under Section 69A and blocked accordingly. Legal experts and civil rights groups, including the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) , have expressed concern that this interpretation could expand government censorship powers beyond what was envisioned by Parliament or upheld by the Supreme Court in the Shreya Singhal case.
Key Takeaways
- The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) blocked Telegram across India on June 16, 2026, under Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000, acting on NTA’s recommendation ahead of the NEET-UG re-examination.
- The block remained in force until June 22, 2026, covering the re-examination day and its immediate aftermath. A separate order disabled Telegram’s message-editing feature in India until June 30.
- Section 69A (inserted by the 2008 amendment) empowers the government to block public access to information on grounds including public order, national security, and sovereignty. Its validity was upheld in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015) .
- The Delhi High Court upheld the ban on June 19, 2026, ruling that an entire platform qualifies as “information” under Section 2(1)(v) of the IT Act, which includes “codes”, “computer programmes”, and “software”.
- The National Testing Agency (NTA), established in November 2017 and headquartered in New Delhi, conducts NEET-UG, JEE-Main, CUET, and other national entrance examinations.
- Telegram, founded in 2013 by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov and headquartered in Dubai, UAE, has over 1 billion monthly active users globally, with India being its largest user base at over 150 million users.
