The Delhi High Court on Wednesday told the Union government to respond to a petition filed by messaging platform Telegram challenging the decision to restrict access to its services in India until June 22, ahead of the NEET-UG re-examination, The Hindu reported.
Justice Tejas Karia directed the government to file its response by Thursday and listed the matter for further hearing at 2.30 pm.
The court asked the government about the extent of the alleged illegal activity on the platform, noting that any digital service could be misused.
The judge, however, refrained from granting any interim relief to Telegram, Live Law reported.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Tuesday restricted access to Telegram till June 22, the day after the re-examination of the entrance test for medical college admissions concludes.
The ministry also directed the platform, under the Information Technology Rules, to disable its message-editing feature till June 30. The National Testing Agency, which conducts the exam, alleged that the feature was used “to fabricate after-the-event ‘paper leak’ evidence”.
A separate direction also requires Telegram to disable the editing of previously sent messages until June 30.
The NEET-UG exam was conducted on May 3, but was cancelled following allegations of a paper leak.
On Wednesday, the messaging platform approached the High Court
During the hearing on Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said the authorities had repeatedly raised concerns with Telegram about alleged misuse of the application, but the platform failed to take any measures to prevent it.
He said several channels were allegedly being used to offer leaked examination questions in exchange for money and that examples had been shared with the company, The Hindu reported.
“If you give me time till tomorrow morning at 8 am,” Mehta told the court. “I will place shocking things before the court.”
Telegram’s counsel challenged the blocking order, arguing that it was discriminatory because other social media intermediaries continued to operate without similar restrictions. He further said the company had cooperated with the authorities and removed content identified by government agencies.
“We have removed all the contents that you have pointed out and that we found objectionable too,” The Hindu quoted him as saying.
The NEET case
More than 22 lakh candidates had appeared for the May 3 test. However, the exam was cancelled after the Rajasthan Special Operations Group began investigating allegations that a “guess paper” circulated before the examination contained questions closely matching the actual paper.
The “guess paper” contained around 410 questions, of which about 120 matched the questions asked in the chemistry section, according to the Rajasthan Police.
The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a first information report in the matter based on a complaint by the Union education ministry. It has invoked charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the 2024 Public Examinations Prevention of Unfair Means Act.
The Opposition and the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical political campaign, has been demanding Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation for the alleged mismanagement in holding competitive exams.
The 2024 examination was also hit by allegations of paper leaks and irregular grace marks, leading to nationwide protests.
Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.
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