3 min learnJun 20, 2026 08:59 AM IST
Telegram on Friday misplaced its bid to overturn an Indian authorities order quickly banning the messaging app, with a New Delhi court docket ruling that the federal government’s actions, geared toward preserving the integrity of a key med faculty examination, have been authorized and cheap.
The ban of the app from June 16 to June 22 has stirred an intense debate in the world’s most populous nation. Free speech rights activists say it has set a worrying precedent that cements authorities powers to curb using any messaging platform every time it sees match.
The federal government put the block in place after the outcomes of the nation’s examination for college kids hoping to get into medical colleges have been scrapped final month amid allegations that the query paper had been leaked.
The federal government is “empowered … to subject instructions for blocking the general public entry to Telegram,” Delhi Excessive Court docket Justice Tejas Karia stated in his ruling.
Telegram, which has greater than 150 million customers in India and counts the nation as its greatest market, didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for touch upon the decision. The Indian authorities additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Telegram stated to afford extra anonymity
“It units a regarding precedent with penalties for the open web that reach properly past this case,” digital rights group Web Freedom Basis stated on X after the decision.
The block solely affected Telegram, with the federal government arguing that the app represented a novel case, citing options reminiscent of the straightforward recreation of blocked channels and the approach telephone numbers and username-based interactions might be hid, which create “a persistent enforcement problem”.
Story continues beneath this advert
Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov has publicly criticised the ban, saying it punishes the platform’s customers, whereas the examination leaks have moved elsewhere.
The momentary ban, which took Telegram offline and eliminated it from app shops this week, was carried out inside hours by Indian telecom firms as properly as the likes of Google and Apple.
It marks essentially the most high-profile court docket tussle between a worldwide tech large and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities this 12 months. Final 12 months, the federal government lowered the variety of officers who can order content material takedowns following a bitter authorized battle with Elon Musk’s X.
The Telegram ban was preceded by days of personal sparring between the 2 sides wherein the Indian authorities rebuked Telegram for not proactively eradicating accounts providing purported leaked examination papers, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Story continues beneath this advert
Telegram in court docket accused the federal government of intentionally omitting particulars of the corporate’s proactive processes. Telegram has stated it took down greater than 900 hyperlinks involving illegal exam-related content material.