The Delhi High Court on 19 June dismissed Telegram’s legal challenge to a government-ordered temporary suspension of its services across India, upholding restrictions that will remain in force until 22 June, one day after the nationwide NEET-UG medical entrance re-examination. The court also left in place a directive disabling the platform’s message-editing feature until 30 June. Justice Tejas Karia ruled that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had followed the procedure prescribed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act and that the emergency blocking order was proportionate. In a significant legal interpretation, the court held that the Act’s definition of “information” encompasses software and computer programmes, thereby empowering the government to block an entire platform rather than only specific content.

The Indian government argued that Telegram’s architecture — including anonymity features, large subscriber channels, automated bots and the ability to recreate blocked channels within minutes — had rendered targeted content removals ineffective against organised cheating networks. According to material placed before the court, channels, groups and bots under scrutiny had a combined reach of approximately 146,000 accounts. The National Testing Agency (NTA), which administers the exam, insisted that question papers remained secure and that additional security layers had been introduced at every stage of handling. Telegram countered that it had cooperated with authorities, removing over 900 links related to unlawful NEET content using artificial intelligence and manual moderation. Founder Pavel Durov publicly criticised the ban, stating that it punished 150 million Indian users while leaked materials had migrated to other platforms. Digital rights advocates, including the Internet Freedom Foundation, described the measure as reactive and disproportionate, warning that it set a precedent for platform-level blocking that could extend beyond the examination context and penalise students who rely on Telegram for legitimate study groups.

Viewed from New Delhi, the ruling consolidates the state’s legal authority to impose temporary platform-wide restrictions under emergency powers, a move that analysts in digital rights circles say could reshape the regulatory landscape for messaging services in India, Telegram’s largest global market. The court accepted the government’s contention that repeated channel-specific takedowns had failed and that “nothing short of a platform-level measure” would safeguard the integrity of the re-test. The ban was implemented within hours by Indian telecom operators and by Google and Apple, which removed the app from their domestic stores, demonstrating the operational capacity to enforce such orders swiftly.

The NEET-UG examination, taken by nearly 2.3 million candidates for admission to undergraduate medical courses, was cancelled in May after allegations of question paper leaks triggered nationwide protests and multiple arrests. A 19-year-old student in Rajasthan was separately arrested this week for allegedly selling fake re-examination papers via a Telegram channel. The re-test is scheduled for 21 June at over 5,000 centres in India and 14 overseas locations. The temporary restrictions are set to lapse on 22 June, but the legal reasoning underpinning the High Court’s decision is likely to inform future state actions concerning platform accountability during national examinations. Telegram has not yet indicated whether it will appeal to the Supreme Court.