Indian court upholds govt's decision to temporary curbs on Telegram
The controversy stems from allegations of a question paper leak in the NEET-UG examination held on 3 May.
The Delhi High Court today (19 June) upheld the Indian government's decision to temporarily restrict access to messaging platform Telegram ahead of the re-examination of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG, scheduled for 21 June.
In a 39-page judgment, the court endorsed the decision taken by India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, saying the measure was aimed at ensuring a fair and secure examination process.
The controversy stems from allegations of a question paper leak in the NEET-UG examination held on 3 May. Following the allegations, the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the test on 12 May and announced a retest for affected candidates.
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A vacation bench headed by Justice Tejas Karia examined whether the temporary restrictions imposed on Telegram met the legal requirement of proportionality.
"The temporary blocking of public access to Telegram cannot be held to be disproportionate," the court said while dismissing a petition filed by the UAE-based messaging platform challenging the government's order.
The bench observed that Section 69A of the Information Technology Act empowers the government to block public access to online information when deemed necessary under the law.
According to the court order, public access to Telegram will remain restricted until 22 June, while the platform's message-editing feature will remain disabled until 30 June.
The government argued that the temporary measures were necessary to prevent the circulation of examination-related content and protect the integrity of the medical admission test.
Telegram, which has nearly 150 million users in India, challenged the restrictions, arguing that the measures affected millions of legitimate users and were disproportionate to the objective being pursued.
However, the court ruled that the temporary nature of the restrictions and the importance of maintaining the credibility of a national-level examination justified the government's action.
NEET-UG is India's largest medical entrance examination and serves as the gateway for admission to undergraduate medical courses across the country.
