NEW DELHI: Instant messaging platform Telegram on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court challenging the Central government’s decision to temporarily ban its services across India ahead of the high-stakes NEET-UG re-test scheduled for June 21. Recognizing the sensitivity of the matter, the court has agreed to hear the petition on an urgent basis. The 24-hour ban was ordered by the Centre on Tuesday following a direct recommendation from the National Testing Agency (NTA), the premier central body tasked with conducting highly competitive national medical entrance examinations.
According to the Union government, the temporary suspension of services was deemed necessary to prevent potential question paper leaks, curb the viral spread of misinformation, and effectively dismantle organized cheating networks operating nationwide. Additionally, Telegram was instructed to disable its core message-editing functionality. The NTA claimed that this feature was being heavily manipulated by fraudsters to fabricate false evidence of ‘paper leaks’ by editing messages to insert actual exam questions post-test while strategically retaining the original timestamp to mislead authorities.
The testing body—which has faced severe backlash from student communities and civil society activists due to recurring instances of examination leaks—maintained that a temporary freeze on the app would help counter underground syndicates that exploit Telegram’s encrypted channels to trade pre-solved papers. Desperate candidates facing immense academic pressure reportedly shell out lakhs of rupees to secure these illicit materials. Following the strict state directive, tech giants Google and Apple, whose mobile operating systems power over 99 percent of smartphones in India, temporarily delisted Telegram from their respective application stores.
However, Telegram’s billionaire founder Pavel Durov strongly criticized the regulatory crackdown, arguing that the sweeping ban penalizes millions of innocent users without offering a viable long-term solution to structural exam malpractice. “India banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions. This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users – not insiders who leaked exam materials. The ban hasn’t stopped anything. Leaks will simply move to other applications,” Durov stated. Conversely, cyber investigators probing the initial May NEET paper leak countered that dedicated Telegram channels have actively put up leaked papers for sale by preying on the intense fear of failure among competitive aspirants. Tracking these channels remains a tedious task for police units, as operators frequently deploy Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to mask their digital footprints. While the student community has generally welcomed the temporary restriction on the app, they urged the government and testing watchdogs to shift their focus toward fixing core institutional vulnerabilities to eliminate leakages entirely.
ലഘു വിവരണം
ജൂൺ 21-ലെ നീറ്റ് പുനപ്പരീക്ഷയ്ക്ക് മുന്നോടിയായി തങ്ങൾക്ക് ഏർപ്പെടുത്തിയ താൽക്കാലിക നിരോധനത്തിനെതിരെ ടെലിഗ്രാം ഡൽഹി ഹൈക്കോടതിയെ സമീപിച്ചു. ചോദ്യപേപ്പർ ചോർച്ചയും തട്ടിപ്പ് സംഘങ്ങളെയും തടയാൻ നാഷണൽ ടെസ്റ്റിംഗ് ഏജൻസിയുടെ ശുപാർശപ്രകാരമാണ് കേന്ദ്രം നിരോധനം ഏർപ്പെടുത്തിയതും ഗൂഗിൾ, ആപ്പിൾ പ്ലേസ്റ്റോറുകളിൽ നിന്ന് ആപ്പ് നീക്കം ചെയ്തതും. എന്നാൽ ഈ നടപടി 15 കോടിയിലധികം വരുന്ന സാധാരണ ഉപയോക്താക്കളെ ബുദ്ധിമുട്ടിക്കുന്നതാണെന്ന് ടെലിഗ്രാം സ്ഥാപകൻ പാവൽ ദുരോവ് കുറ്റപ്പെടുത്തി.
(With inputs from NDTV)
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