The Centre has temporarily blocked access to the Telegram platform across India until June 22 and directed the messaging service to disable its message-editing feature until June 30, citing the need to prevent examination fraud and misinformation ahead of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination.
In a statement issued on June 16, 2026, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) acted on its recommendations by issuing a direction under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act restricting access to Telegram during the examination period, while separately requiring the platform to suspend its message-editing function for messages already posted.
According to the NTA, organised cheating rackets had been using Telegram channels to lure candidates with false promises of leaked question papers and to fabricate post-examination “paper leak” evidence by editing older messages while retaining their original timestamps. The agency said these structural features had undermined confidence in national examinations and necessitated platform-level intervention after channel-by-channel takedowns proved insufficient.
The NTA credited the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), the Ministry of Home Affairs, MeitY and state police agencies for coordinated action against fraudulent Telegram channels and cybercrime networks operating across multiple states.
While acknowledging that the temporary restriction would inconvenience millions of legitimate users, the NTA said the measure was narrowly tailored and limited to the examination window, with the objective of ensuring a fair and secure conduct of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled for June 21.