Delhi High Court upholds temporary Telegram block to protect NEET-UG retest integrity

The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld the central government's order temporarily blocking messaging platform Telegram until June 22, ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination scheduled for Sunday. Justice Tejas Karia ruled that the government is empowered under the Information Technology Act to issue emergency blocking directions not only against individual users but also against entire platforms like Telegram.

Dismissing Telegram's plea challenging the June 16 blocking order, the court held that the government's action was proportionate and the 'least restrictive measure' to prevent potential misuse of the platform before the NEET retest on June 21, thereby averting possible public order implications.

'The temporary blocking of Telegram under the Orders is operative only until 22.06.2026, while the disabling of the message-editing feature is confined to the period until 30.06.2026. The limited temporal scope of these measures demonstrates that they are narrowly tailored and confined to the period strictly necessary for securing the stated objective,' Justice Karia said.

The High Court also considered the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's (MeitY) June 16 and June 18 orders, which noted that entity-specific actions such as reporting and removal of channels, groups, bots, and accounts had been 'repeatedly found to be ineffective and inadequate.'

Balancing the blocking action against the ability of 150 million Indian users to access Telegram for lawful purposes, the court deemed it a proportionate measure, especially given the platform's unique architecture that makes it susceptible to widespread dissemination of misinformation.

The blocking order was issued under Section 69A of the IT Act, which empowers the government to block access to 'information' through any 'computer resource' in emergencies, such as when sovereignty or integrity of the country is threatened. Telegram had argued that such power could only be used against specific information, not for a blanket restriction on an entire intermediary platform. The court disagreed, interpreting 'information' expansively to include applications and platforms.

'An application or platform, in its ordinary and commonly understood sense, is a computer programme or software designed to perform specified functions for an end user. In view of the express inclusion of 'codes', 'computer programmes' and 'software' within the definition of 'information' under Section 2(1)(v) of the IT Act, there is no reason to exclude an application or platform from the ambit of the said expression,' Justice Karia observed.

Citing definitions of 'computer resource' and 'computer' under the Act, he held that 'information generated, transmitted, received, stored, or hosted through such software-based infrastructure falls within the ambit of Section 69A.' Consequently, the court affirmed the government's authority to block public access to Telegram.