The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld the Central government's decision to temporarily block access to messaging platform Telegram in connection with concerns surrounding the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) re-examinations.

The bench of Justice Tejas Karia dismissed Telegram's challenge to the government's order, holding that the Centre was empowered under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, to impose the restriction.

“The government was empowered under Section 69A to direct blocking of access to Telegram. The test of proportionality is satisfied. The measures adopted are the least restrictive and cannot be termed disproportionate,” the Court observed.

The Court found that the government had acted in emergent circumstances and had followed the due process prescribed under Section 69A. It further held that the blocking orders were reasoned and did not suffer from any non-application of mind.

“We have also held that there is no reason under the IT Act to exclude the platform from the ambit of ‘information’,” the Court added.

The Centre had temporarily blocked Telegram after raising concerns that organised cheating networks linked to the NEET-UG controversy were using the platform to circulate leaked examination material. The move came after the original NEET examination was cancelled amid allegations of paper leaks and widespread irregularities.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had issued directions under Section 69A restricting access to Telegram in India until June 22. It also ordered the platform to disable the message-editing feature for already posted messages until June 30.

Challenging the decision, Telegram argued that it had been unfairly singled out while other social media intermediaries continued to operate without restrictions, amounting to a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution.

The platform said it had been in regular contact with government agencies since May and had submitted detailed responses outlining its proactive and reactive moderation efforts. It claimed that after receiving specific URLs from authorities on June 9, it removed the flagged content within an hour and had taken down over 900 links related to unlawful NEET content using artificial intelligence, machine learning tools and manual moderation systems.

The Court had reserved its verdict on June 18 after hearing Senior Advocate Dhruv Mehta for Telegram and Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Central government.

Senior Advocate Dhruv Mehta argued that the MeitY Secretary had failed to apply his mind while issuing the blocking order, questioning how an examination-related issue could be linked to concerns of sovereignty and integrity of India.

He maintained that Telegram had continuously engaged with authorities, removed flagged content and complied with regulatory requirements.

Defending the government's action, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that the Centre had adopted the least restrictive measures available to curb examination paper leaks and therefore satisfied the proportionality test. He further submitted that Telegram's architecture limited its ability to effectively respond in such situations and highlighted that its privacy policy allows complete deletion of user data upon account deletion.

Attorney General R Venkataramani also defended the order, stating that Telegram's platform architecture posed significant challenges for preventive action and describing it as a “Frankenstein” in the context of enforcement efforts.

Telegram's petition was filed through Advocate Madhav Khosla, while Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma and Central Government Standing Counsel Ashish Dixit also appeared for the Centre.