Telegram blocked: ‘Shocking material’ on platform, Centre tells Delhi High Court

Challenging the government’s June 16 interim blocking order before the Delhi High Court Wednesday, Telegram told the court that it received another order from the Centre cautioning action for “non-compliance” with the blocking directive.

Appearing before the court, the Centre said Telegram was given a hearing on Wednesday following the temporary blocking order and that a final decision is likely to be issued today.

The government Tuesday temporarily blocked Telegram until June 22, after the platform’s “non-responsiveness” in aiding the ongoing probe into the May 3 NEET-UG paper leak and for curbing the spread of fraudulent claims of access to the June 21 re-examination paper by handles on the platform.

The Centre, represented by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, submitted in court that there is “shocking material” on the platform. He added, orally, “We shudder to imagine a situation where there is public unrest.”

Accusing Telegram of not disclosing certain material before the court, SG Mehta sought time until Thursday to file their response and bring additional material on the court’s record. “There is a host of material which I would like the court to see,” he told the court.

Justice Tejas Karia then inquired if the “complete” blocking of the “application is proportionate”.

Responding in the affirmative, SG Mehta said, “I’ll have to show individual users (on the platform)… Several things were there… they were repeatedly told that ‘these… issues are arising repeatedly, please correct your system’, which they failed to do. That’s what I want to bring on record.”

Story continues below this ad

Justice Karia further inquired orally, “But (blocking) individually (the errant user/channels) is it not possible, technologically?”. SG Mehta then referred to quick proliferation of such erring users.

Telegram, in its petition, sought quashing of the June 16 order by the government, and in the interim, a stay on the order.

Justice Karia, issuing notice on the petition, granted the Centre the liberty to file a reply and supporting documents. The matter will be heard further on Thursday at 2.30 pm.

‘Thrown baby with bathwater’

Telegram, in its petition, submitted that blocking the whole application, “while allowing the proliferation of similar content on other platforms, without any similar, let alone equal measures,” is violative of Article 14.

Story continues below this ad

Telegram, through its counsel senior advocate Dhruv Mehta, argued that the interim blocking order has not followed the procedure prescribed under the law, and that it suffered from “the vice of non-application of mind”. It submitted that if the interim order itself is faulty, “the final order (too) will suffer the same consequences”.

Stating that there are 150 million users of the platform in India, Telegram added, “… you’ve 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, SG 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, we have been receiving complaints since May… for some reason this platform is being (mis)used.”