Messaging platform Telegram on Wednesday moved Delhi High Court against the Centre's decision to temporarily block access ahead of the NEET-UG re-examination even as the app stopped working for Indian users without a VPN.
Advocate Madhav Khosla mentioned Telegram's plea before a vacation bench of Justice Tejas Karia, which agreed to hear the matter on an urgent basis on Wednesday. Khosla told the court that more than 150 million Telegram users in India have been affected by the temporary restriction.
The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued directions under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricting access to Telegram in India from June 17 to June 22. A separate order also directed the platform to disable the message-editing feature for already-posted messages until June 30.
The government said the measure was aimed at protecting the integrity of the NEET-UG re-examination scheduled for June 21 after authorities raised concerns that Telegram channels were being used to circulate leaked or fake question papers, coordinate cheating and manipulate message timestamps through the editing feature.
The action comes weeks after the government cancelled the key undergraduate medical entrance examination following allegations of question paper leaks and widespread irregularities.
IIT Kanpur director vs whistleblowers
The issue gained traction on social media after IIT Kanpur Director Manindra Agrawal defended the government's decision.
"The problem with Telegram channel is not sharing of leaked paper, there are many other ways of doing it, rather that it can be used to spread fake news of leak that appears genuine,” Agrawal wrote.
Later, he added: "Telegram allows one to fake a leak without leaving trace."
His remarks were challenged by teen developers and whistleblowers Sarthak Sidhant and Nisarga Adhikary, along with several technology professionals, who argued that Telegram visibly marks edited messages.
Nisarga criticised both the effectiveness of the restriction and the reasoning behind it, writing: "> can't stop paper leaks > ends up blocking telegram"
He further argued that "blocking telegram totally isn't even possible, telegram is designed in such a way which easily allows people to use proxies and other methods of circumvention."
When Agrawal suggested Telegram edits could occur without any visible record, Nisarga responded: "sir, telegram shows it too."
‘Meow Meow’ fact check goes viral
The debate intensified after Sidhant used what he described as a "meow meow" message to demonstrate that Telegram displays edit histories.
Responding to Agrawal's broader defence of the restriction, Sarthak wrote: "just because a COMMUNICATION MEDIUM has elements of misinformation, we have decided to shut it down. ~ IITK Director doesn't whatsapp has elements of misinformation? doesn't the indian press? what's the reasoning behind shutting down entire telegram?"
He added: "twitter par bhi misinformation fail rahi hai, let's shut down twitter. infact let's shut down every medium of dissent because dissent is misinformation afterall? let's ban people talking to each other because misinformation. fake news. mute society."
After Agrawal stated that Telegram had a "special feature that allows editing of post WITHOUT reflecting that edit has been done", Sarthak replied: "that's not true though".
Soon after, he wrote: "that's misinformation! NTA might consider banning twitter next since it is used for spreading misinformation."
Sharing screenshots that showed edited Telegram messages marked with visible timestamps, Sarthak added: "fact checking IITK director with a 'meow meow' message."
When Agrawal later asked whether users could upload a PDF on one day and replace it later without showing the change date, Sarthak responded: "the timestamp of the change, say even pdfs, is reflected right there,"
Wider questions over Telegram ban
The discussion soon expanded beyond the exchange between Agrawal and the two teenagers.
Several developers and technology professionals also challenged the technical basis of the restriction, noting that Telegram's applications are open source and that edit histories are visible to users. Others argued that the temporary block could disrupt businesses, educational groups, developer communities and AI-powered services that rely on the platform.
Critics contend that restricting one communication platform does little to address the root causes of exam leaks and misinformation, particularly when VPN access and alternative messaging services remain available.