Ahead of the NEET re-exam which is scheduled to take place on June 22, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has blocked messaging app Telegram in India till June 22. A direction has also been issued to the platform to disabled the message editing feature in India till June 30.
The National Testing Agency stated that both measures have been taken in the interest of public order, in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled on 21 June 2026.”
However, Telegram has not issued a statement yet. Additionally, the platform was available to the user in India hours after the government’s announcement. It is also not clear how the move will be enforced. NTA said in its statement: “The directions, issued on recommendations of NTA are calibrated and bounded in time: (a) a direction under Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricting access to the Telegram platform in India for a defined and limited period ending 22 June 2026, covering the day of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination and its immediate aftermath; and (b) a direction requiring the platform to disable, in India, the message-editing feature in respect of messages already posted, for a defined period ending 30 June 2026, addressing the specific structural feature through which the platform has been used to fabricate after-the-event ‘paper leak’ evidence in respect of national examinations.”
“Throughout the period leading up to the present action, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has served as the principal nodal agency coordinating the operational response to the Telegram-based fraud and misinformation targeting NEET (UG) 2026 candidates. Acting on inputs received continuously from NTA, from State law-enforcement agencies including the police forces of Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and from its own continuous monitoring of public channels and platforms, I4C has secured the prompt take-down of a substantial number of Telegram channels, groups and bots whose names and content openly advertised their fraudulent and misleading purpose,” the NTA added.
“A measure of last resort, taken only after intermediate remedies, including the take-down action coordinated by I4C, had been pursued and had not produced, at the platform level, the response required to protect candidates in the run-up to the examination,” the NTA said.
The move comes ahead of the NEET-UG exam paper leak on 3 May, earlier this year. As many as 2.28 million candidates took the exam with more than 5,000 centers across India. However, the exam was scrapped on alleged paper leak, so far dozens have been arrested in the involvement.
