Telegram Moves to Delhi HC Against Centre's NEET Ban Order

Telegram cites removal of NEET-related links

The plea states that Telegram has taken preventive steps such as taking down more than 900 links that contained unlawful material related to NEET with the deployment of AI tools.

“The Impugned Order does not justify why less restrictive alternatives, such as targeted takedowns of unlawful content were inadequate, or why the entirety of the Telegram application had to be blocked from public access,” the plea said.

Pavel Durov Calls Suspension a Mistake

In response to the centre's decision, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov called the temporary ban an error by the Indian government. Durov wrote that such banning was a disservice to regular Indian users who are the victims, not the culprits of exam material leaks and circulation and added that Telegram had removed hundreds of channels distributing leaked exam material and related scams in the past few weeks.

He said, "India banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions. This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users - not insiders who leaked exam materials. Ban hasn't stopped anything. Leaks will move to other apps.”

"Over the past few weeks, we removed hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India. We're also making the “edited” label more visible to prevent backdating scams. Telegram is a force for good. Banning it — even temporarily — is a mistake,” he added.

Centre Backs Ban to Curb Cheating

The Centre, on Tuesday, had recommended a ban on the app as suggested by the NTA (National Testing Agency). The Centre said the temporary ban was intended to contain leak and spread of misinformation and block organised cheating network and was asked by the NTA to disable the app’s edit message functionality since it has been abused by those involved to frame evidence of 'paper leak' by editing the message and question asked after exam.