India blocks Telegram ahead of NEET re-examination to avoid paper leak; App moves to court despite public evidence
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On Wednesday, June 17, messaging platform Telegram approached the Delhi High Court to contest the Indian government's decision to temporarily suspend access to the app ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination. The matter was mentioned before Justice Tejas Karia's bench, which agreed to take it up for hearing.
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The Centre imposed the temporary block under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, acting on a recommendation from the National Testing Agency (NTA). The suspension is set to remain in effect through June 22, encompassing the June 21 re-test and its immediate aftermath. Additionally, the government has directed Telegram to disable its message-editing feature across India until June 30, citing its repeated misuse by fraudsters who exploited it to fabricate evidence of question paper leaks, editing older posts after exams to swap attached files while preserving original timestamps.
The NTA expressed support for the government's intervention, crediting the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) with acting swiftly against organised cheating networks. The agency stated that the directions were issued in the interest of public order, in response to coordinated attempts by fraudulent syndicates to exploit the platform and deceive candidates appearing for the re-examination.
The development follows the controversy surrounding the original NEET-UG examination, which was cancelled after evidence of a paper leak surfaced. Several Telegram channels, operating under names such as "PAPER LEAKED NEET", "Re-NEET 2026", "Private Mafia", and "REE NEET MAFIAA", allegedly solicited money from students in exchange for purported access to the re-examination paper, with amounts reportedly ranging from a few thousand to several lakh rupees. The NTA has firmly denied that any examination paper exists outside its secured distribution chain, characterising all such claims as fraudulent.
The crackdown has been coordinated by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in collaboration with MeitY, state police forces, and the NTA, resulting in the takedown of numerous Telegram channels, groups, and bots allegedly involved in spreading misinformation and defrauding students. State-level investigations are also underway; Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit issued a public advisory cautioning candidates against scams, while the Ahmedabad City Cyber Crime Branch arrested members of an alleged inter-state fraud network, with investigators tracing transactions of approximately Rs 1.5 crore through fictitious bank accounts.