New Delhi, June 2026 — The Delhi High Court has delivered a major blow to Telegram, upholding the Indian government’s temporary ban on the messaging platform amid the escalating NEET-UG paper leak scandal.

What Telegram argued was an illegal restriction affecting over 150 million users, the court deemed a necessary, proportionate, and strictly legal intervention.

Fabricating Leaks Through App Features

For weeks, the National Testing Agency (NTA) warned that organized cheating syndicates were weaponizing Telegram’s secure network to distribute pre-solved papers to medical aspirants.

However, the tipping point was the specific misuse of Telegram’s editing tool. Malicious actors were altering old messages to insert exam questions after the tests had concluded. By retaining the original timestamps, they successfully fabricated “evidence” of prior leaks, triggering widespread panic among students.

The “Least Restrictive” Legal Strike

To dismantle these networks ahead of the June 21st re-examination, the Indian government ordered Google and Apple to delist Telegram until June 22nd and mandated the disabling of the editing feature until June 30th.

Telegram fought the order in court, but the bench stood firm. Invoking Section 69A of the IT Act, the court ruled that the government had the absolute power to block access to maintain public order, calling the temporary ban the “least restrictive measure available.”

A CEO’s Fiery, Flawed Accusations

The restriction infuriated Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who took to X with explosive claims. He accused telecom giant Reliance and Meta-owned WhatsApp of a coordinated lobbying effort to eliminate Telegram in India.

Durov alleged that Reliance Communications intentionally disrupted Telegram’s connectivity for users in India and the UAE through BGP hijacking—a rogue method of manipulating global internet routing to sabotage specific services.

Connecting the Wrong Dots

However, Durov’s conspiracy theory unraveled quickly due to a fundamental error. He had confused Reliance Communications (RCom)—which handles the submarine cables relevant to BGP hijacking—with Reliance Industries Limited’s digital arm, Jio.

These are entirely separate entities. Furthermore, while Meta holds a minority stake in Jio, it has zero involvement in the telecom’s day-to-day operations. Whether it was an honest mistake or a calculated diversion, the factual blunder severely weakened Durov’s public defense.

Bottom Line

The controversy goes far deeper than a CEO’s social media outburst or corporate rivalries. As the NEET-UG retest looms, the court’s ruling sends a definitive message: the government will aggressively leverage the IT Act to dismantle digital cheating networks, and tech platforms cannot hide behind user metrics when the integrity of national exams is on the line.