Delhi HC refuses to lift Telegram ban before NEET re-test

NEW DELHI: Telegram’s bid to wriggle out of a week-long Indian ban came to nothing on Friday, as the Delhi High Court told the messaging app, in effect, to sit tight until NEET-UG candidates have sat their re-exam. Justice Tejas Karia ruled that the centre had ticked every procedural box, and that Section 69A gave it the power to pull the plug. The government’s “pro-active measures” were the least restrictive route available, the judge found, dismissing the charge that the order was disproportionate or born of a blank mind.

The ban itself runs until Monday, switched on at the National Testing Agency’s request after cheating rackets allegedly turned Telegram into their tool of choice for fleecing candidates ahead of Sunday’s re-examination. The Union government did not pull its punches in court on Thursday, branding Telegram the “new dark web” — an app, it argued, whose architecture and privacy settings have made it catnip for cybercriminals, fraud networks, extremists and terror outfits alike, with paper-leak gangs merely the latest tenants. Much of that case leaned on an assessment from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, which flagged the platform as a fast-growing nest of illicit activity.

Telegram’s senior advocate, Dhruv Mehta, was having none of it. The government, he argued, had reached for emergency powers without explaining why a scalpel — blocking specific content — wouldn’t do, instead swinging a sledgehammer at the entire app. He took particular aim at the sovereignty argument: “An examination like NEET will affect the sovereignty and integrity of India? What is the application of mind?”

The court, evidently, did not share his bafflement. For now, Telegram stays dark in India — and the cheats, presumably, are left hunting for a new back channel before Sunday’s papers are even handed out.