Telegram Ban in India Case Live Updates: Delhi High Court to deliver judgment

The government on June 16 temporarily blocked Telegram until June 22. (File Photo)

Telegram Ban Judgment: The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld Centre’s order to temporarily block the Telegram messaging app until June 22 over NEET paper leak concerns.

“Given the emergency nature of the impugned order, the reasons supplied in arriving at the decision were sufficient. Respondent no.1 (Centre) has strictly followed the procedural steps as required under Section 69 A of the Act and the challenge in the interim order on the ground of non-communication of reasons cannot be sustained,” the court held in its order.

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It further added that the test of proportionality has been satisfied as the requirements, namely identification of legitimate objective, existence of rational nexus between the objective and the measure adopted, necessity of measure in the facts and circumstances of the case, and adoption of the least restrictive measure available, have been adopted.

What happened during hearing? During the hearing, the Centre told the court that the public interest involved in the matter extends to “crores of students” whose concerns over alleged question paper leaks cannot be ignored. It argued that Telegram’s message editing feature, which allows users to modify the posts, could be misused to create a false impression that examination papers were leaked before the exam. On the decision to temporarily ban the platform, the court asked Centre how the communication rights of the users could be curtailed just because one group of citizens is appearing in examination.

Telegram Ban: The Ministry of Electronics and IT blocked Telegram in India until June 22 at the request of the National Testing Agency (NTA), responsible for conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), after the country’s key undergraduate medical entrance exam was cancelled earlier this year due to widespread paper leak allegations and irregularities.

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