3 min readNew DelhiJun 17, 2026 11:54 PM IST
First published on: Jun 17, 2026 at 08:34 PM IST
A day after it was blocked temporarily by the Centre ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination on June 21, messaging application Telegram challenged the government move before the Delhi High Court Wednesday and said it had received another order warning of action over “non-compliance” with the directive.
The bench of Justice Tejas Karia, which issued notice to the Centre with the liberty to file a reply and supporting documents, will hear the matter Thursday.
In its petition, Telegram sought quashing of the blocking order and, for the interim, a stay. It has been blocked until June 22.
The Centre, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, told the bench there was “shocking material” on the platform. “We shudder to imagine a situation where there is public unrest,” he said.
Accusing Telegram of not disclosing certain material before the High Court, Mehta sought time until Thursday to file a response and bring additional material on record. “There is a host of material which I would like the court to see,” he said.
Justice Karia inquired if “complete” blocking of the application was “proportionate”.
Responding in the affirmative, Mehta said, “I will have to show individual users (on the platform)… Several things were there… They were repeatedly told that ‘issues are arising repeatedly, please correct your system’, which they failed to do. That’s what I want to bring on record.”
Justice Karia asked, “But (blocking) individually (errant user/channel) is it not possible, technologically?”. Mehta referred to quick proliferation of such errant users.
‘Thrown baby with bathwater’
In its petition, Telegram said blocking the whole application, “while allowing the proliferation of similar content on other platforms, without any similar, let alone equal measures,” was violative of Article 14.
Senior Advocate Dhruv Mehta, appearing for Telegram, said the interim blocking order had not followed the procedure prescribed under the law, and that it suffered from “the vice of non-application of mind”. He said if the interim order itself was faulty, “the final order” would “suffer the same consequences”.
Stating that there were 150 million users of the platform in India, Telegram said, “You have thrown the baby with the bathwater. Students are getting study material (on the platform), apart from educators… There are business interests (operating out of the platform)… Article 14 (equality) is clearly violated, if not Article 19 (freedom of speech).”
Rebutting Telegram’s submission, Mehta said, “Material which has been referred (to by the government), it is shocking, you know that. We have been dealing with them since May, and we have been receiving complaints since May.”
The government Tuesday temporarily blocked Telegram until June 22. (Credits: Zulfugar Karimov, Unsplash) 
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