New Delhi, June 18 (IANS) The Delhi High Court will pronounce on Friday its verdict on a plea filed by messaging platform Telegram challenging the Centre’s decision to temporarily suspend its services across India ahead of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled for June 21.

A single-judge Bench of Justice Tejas Karia reserved judgment on Thursday after hearing arguments from Telegram and the Union government. As per the Delhi High Court’s website, the verdict is scheduled to be delivered at 10:30 a.m. on June 19.

The writ petition questions the restrictions imposed pursuant to directions issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, following recommendations made by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

Telegram has challenged the Centre’s decision to temporarily suspend its services across India till June 22 and disable its message-editing feature till June 30, contending that the restrictions are disproportionate and adversely affect millions of users.

However, the Union government defended the decision, telling the Delhi High Court that Telegram’s architecture and repeated misuse for examination-related frauds left the government with “no other option” but to invoke emergency blocking powers under the Information Technology Act.

In an affidavit filed through MeitY, the Centre said the decision was taken only after “exhausting alternatives”, including repeated requests for targeted takedowns of unlawful content, which were found inadequate.

According to the Centre, the NTA had flagged several Telegram channels allegedly involved in the sale of purported NEET question papers and in examination-related scams.

It claimed that the identified channels, groups and bots had a combined reach of nearly 1.46 lakh accounts and were openly seeking payments from candidates in exchange for alleged access to examination papers.

The Union government maintained that its “prime consideration” was to ensure the sanctity and purity of the re-examination, which is being conducted for over 22 lakh candidates following allegations of question paper leaks in the original NEET (UG) 2026 examination held on May 3.

The matter was taken up by the Delhi High Court after Telegram sought urgent relief against the government’s temporary restrictions.

–IANS

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