Messaging platform Telegram on Wednesday approached the Delhi High Court challenging the Centre's decision to temporarily block its services in India ahead of the NEET-UG re-test, citing security concerns.
The government has imposed temporary restrictions on Telegram until June 22, a move welcomed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), which said the action was aimed at preventing fraud and the spread of misinformation targeting examination candidates.
The matter was mentioned on an urgent basis before a vacation bench of Justice Tejas Karia by Advocate Madhav Khosla. The Court agreed to hear the plea later in the day.
The development comes amid heightened regulatory scrutiny of Telegram in India.
According to reports, the government has directed Google and Apple to remove the app from their respective app stores until June 22 over concerns linked to alleged paper leaks related to the NEET-UG re-examination scheduled for June 21.
Authorities have also reportedly instructed Telegram to disable its message-editing feature for existing posts in India until June 30, citing concerns that the functionality could be misused to create fabricated evidence of examination paper leaks.
Meanwhile, Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov on Wednesday alleged that Reliance Group and WhatsApp may be connected to efforts to ban the platform in India.
He also accused an Indian telecom operator of disrupting Telegram access for users outside the country.
In a post on X, Durov claimed that Reliance Communications was interfering with Telegram's connectivity through a technique known as BGP hijacking. "Indian telecom Reliance is sabotaging access to Telegram for millions of users OUTSIDE India (including the UAE) via a rogue method called BGP hijacking. The sabotage seems intentional, as Reliance has ignored multiple reports.
This may be part of a competitive war, as Reliance is partially owned by Meta, the company behind WhatsApp," Durov said.
In an earlier post on X, Durov expressed concern that ordinary Telegram users in India were being penalised for the actions of individuals involved in leaking examination materials.
He said, "India’s IT ministry banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions.
This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India, not the insiders who leaked the exam materials.
And the ban hasn't stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps."
The NTA, however, maintained that the decision was necessary to ensure a fair and secure examination process. It also said the restriction is limited in duration and would be lifted after the re-examination.
