Telegram Fights Back in Delhi HC Against NEET Ban, Key Hearing Today

The legal battle over India's Telegram ban escalated dramatically as the platform rushed to the Delhi High Court, and the government stood its ground with characteristic conviction, insisting the move is surgical, not sweeping , an argument that conveniently ignores the 150 million ordinary users now staring at a blocked app screen.

Telegram's petition was mentioned on an urgent basis before a vacation bench of Justice Tejas Karia by advocate Madhav Khosla, who argued that over 150 million Indian users have been cut off by MeitY's order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. The court, to its credit, did not brush it aside, it issued notice to the Central government and scheduled the next hearing for Thursday, June 18 at 2:30 PM .

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Centre and made his position abundantly clear. He described what he called " shocking activities on Telegram ," adding that a post-decisional hearing had already taken place and a formal order was expected the same day. The government's framing, in essence, is that it acted reluctantly and only after every softer option had been exhausted.

Telegram's response deserves attention too. The platform claimed in its plea that it had already taken down more than 900 links involving unlawful NEET-related content, deploying artificial intelligence and machine learning tools for proactive moderation. It also pointed out that it removed flagged content within an hour of receiving specific URLs from authorities on June 9, yet was never given a hearing as required under Rule 8 of the 2009 IT Rules before the ban was imposed. The platform further argued that it was being singled out while other similarly placed intermediaries continued to operate without restriction, raising a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.

The government countered that fraud networks had weaponised Telegram's message-editing feature to plant placeholder posts, alter them post-exam, and circulate screenshots as supposed proof of advance paper access. A separate order additionally directed the platform to disable its message-editing feature entirely until June 30, 2026 . Both Google and Apple delisted the Telegram app from their respective stores following the government directive.

What the Centre has not adequately answered is why a blanket platform shutdown , rather than coordinated, real-time channel takedowns, was deemed necessary when Telegram had demonstrably complied with prior takedown requests within the hour. The NEET re-examination is scheduled for June 21 , and the ban lifts June 22. The Delhi High Court will now decide today whether that window justifies what Telegram correctly calls a disproportionate and constitutionally suspect order.