Delhi High Court Upholds India's Temporary Telegram Ban

The Delhi High Court upheld the Indian government's decision to temporarily block the Telegram messaging platform from June 16 to June 22, 2026. Justice Tejas Karia ruled that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology acted lawfully under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to preserve the integrity of the NEET-UG re-examination scheduled for June 21. The court rejected Telegram's argument that the block was disproportionate, stating that the platform's architecture allowed cheating rackets to quickly create mirror channels, rendering targeted takedowns ineffective.

In addition to the service block, the government directed Telegram to disable its message-editing feature until June 30 to prevent the fabrication of evidence during fraud investigations. The measures followed recommendations from the National Testing Agency, which flagged bots and channels selling leaked question papers. The ban triggered a surge in the use of circumvention tools, with VPN downloads in India increasing by 49%.

Digital rights groups and Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge criticized the move, arguing the government was punishing students rather than addressing systemic failures of the paper leak mafia. Telegram founder Pavel Durov also condemned the action as a disproportionate measure. Despite these objections, the court found the government's actions to be the least restrictive means available to secure the exam for approximately 2.2 million candidates.