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Telegram moves Delhi HC against Centre's temporary block order ahead of NEET re-test
Telegram moves Delhi HC against Centre's temporary block order ahead of NEET re-test
Telegram approached the Delhi high court on Wednesday, seeking to challenge the temporary ban against the platform ahead of the NEET UG re-examination scheduled for June 21.
The Centre had imposed temporary restrictions on the app in India till June 22, with the National Testing Agency (NTA) welcoming the move. The NTA said the move was aimed at preventing fraud and misinformation targeting candidates.
The matter has been listed before the bench of Justice Tajas Karia, with the hearing to be held later today.
This came after the NTA exposed a large-scale scam network operating on Telegram, alleging that fraudsters were demanding anywhere between ₹14,000 to ₹25,000, and in some cases up to ₹10 lakh, by falsely claiming access to “leaked re-exam papers.”
What do we know about the blocking order?
In a statement, the NTA said the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY)had directed a temporary restriction on access to Telegram in India until June 22, covering the examination period and its immediate aftermath.
The ministry further directed the platform to disable its message-editing feature in India until June 30. NTA said that this was done to prevent the organised use of Telegram by cheating rackets that allegedly attempted to defraud NEET candidates through false claims of access to examination papers. Further, the agency said the message editing feature was asked to be disabled to prevent the creation of fabricated "paper leak" evidence by allowing users to alter previously sent messages while retaining their original timestamps.
While acknowledging that inconvenience caused to Telegram users, NTA said the measures were temporary and necessary to protect the integrity of NEET UG. The medical entrance examination, which had originally been held on May 3, was cancelled amid allegations of irregularities and paper leaks.
‘Punishes over 150 million users’: Telegram founder on ban
Meanwhile, Telegram founder Pavel Durov had criticised the temporary restrictions on the platform, saying it would inconvenience more than 150 million users of the app.
“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 app,” Durov said in a post on X.
NTA DG Abhishek Singh defended the Centre's decision, saying students would not be able to access channels being operated through VPNs outside the country. “People can operate some channels by using VPN or they can operate from outside India. But the fact is that the lack of students who are accessing them, they will not be able to access that. Even though they can continue operating them channels, but if there is no clientele, the fraud will be prevented and the students will be protected from losing money and from wasting their time in chasing fake question papers,” Singh said.
