The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a petition by messaging application Telegram challenging the Union government’s ban on it till June 22, the day after the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test re-examination, Live Law reported.

The court held that the Centre “strictly followed the procedure” under the Information Technology Act given the “emergency nature” of the order.

“The government's measures are least restrictive,” Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying. “It cannot be held that the order is disproportionate.”

The court held that under the Information Technology Act, there was no basis to exclude the platform from the scope of the term “information”.

Justice Tejas Karia held that the government was empowered under Section 69A of the Act to order that access to Telegram be temporarily blocked. The section allows the government to block information from public access in the interests of national sovereignty, security and public order, among other grounds.

The ministry of electronics and information technology imposed the temporary ban on June 16 on the recommendation of the National Testing Agency. The agency had claimed that channels on Telegram had been demanding large sums of money from candidates and their families while fraudulently promising to give them access to the question paper for the entrance test for medical college admissions.

Telegram had argued that the government had singled it out, violating Article 14 of the Constitution that guarantees the right to equality. It also contended that the blocking order had affected more than 150 million users.

However, the Union government on Thursday claimed before the High Court that Telegram was becoming the new “dark web”, enabling illegal activities and linking criminals. The dark web is a hidden layer of the internet that cannot be accessed through regular search engines and browsers.

The NEET-UG exam was conducted on May 3, and more than 22 lakh candidates had appeared for it. 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 2024 examination was also hit by allegations of paper leaks and irregular grace marks, leading to nationwide protests.

Edited by Sara Varghese.