The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld the Central government’s decision to temporarily block Telegram, ruling that authorities have the power under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, to restrict access to an entire application or digital platform when required.
Justice Tejas Karia observed that the term “information” under the IT Act should be interpreted broadly and not be limited to individual posts, messages, files or user accounts. The Court held that narrowing the definition would undermine the purpose of Section 69A, which empowers the government to block access to information in the interests of national security, sovereignty, public order and related concerns.
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The Court said that applications and platforms such as Telegram fall within the scope of “computer resources” under the Act, as they perform storage, communication and processing functions through software-based infrastructure. Therefore, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was legally empowered to direct the blocking of Telegram.
Court finds restrictions proportionate
The High Court also ruled that the temporary suspension of Telegram until June 22 and the disabling of its message-editing feature until June 30 were proportionate measures aimed at curbing misinformation and unlawful activities linked to the NEET-UG 2026 examination.
According to the Court, Telegram’s structure allows content to spread rapidly through channels, groups, bots and cloud-based storage. It noted that simply removing individual channels or bots would not have been effective because operators could quickly create mirror channels and restore their networks.
The Court further observed that the message-editing feature could potentially be misused to falsely claim that examination papers had been leaked before the test.
Telegram argued action was discriminatory
Telegram had challenged the government’s order, arguing that Section 69A only permits blocking of specific information and not entire social media platforms. The company also alleged discrimination, claiming other intermediaries continued to operate without restrictions.
Telegram stated that it had cooperated with authorities, removed flagged content within hours and taken down more than 900 links related to unlawful NEET content. It also highlighted its use of artificial intelligence, machine learning tools and human moderation to detect violations.
Despite these arguments, the Court concluded that the government’s actions were justified given the circumstances and the potential impact on public order and examination integrity.
