Telegram, the instant messaging app on which the government has imposed access restrictions ahead of the June 21 retake of the medical entrance exam for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for University (NEET-UG), appears to remain blocked for some users in India who are still unable to send or receive messages even after the restrictions end date on June 22.
Instant messaging app Telegram was live for some existing users on Tuesday morning, but remained deleted from Google and Apple’s app stores. The app was later available on Google Playstore, but continued to not be listed on Apple’s App Store until around 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The government, in an interim order issued on June 16 under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, ordered Telegram and its associated URLs to be blocked across India till June 22, and ordered the platform to disable the message editing feature till June 30.
While some users continued to face access restrictions and others were able to access the messaging app on Tuesday, a day after it was scheduled to be restored, an IT official told HT that there are no plans to extend the ban, suggesting that the restoration of services may be rolled out in a phased manner.
After a hearing before a committee constituted under Rule 7 of the IT Blocking Rules on June 17, the Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT issued a final order on June 18 confirming the interim directions – the order is under appeal.
Telegram banned before NEET re-examination
The ban was seen as an attempt to prevent any possible irregularities ahead of the rerun of the NEET-UG exam on June 21, which was originally conducted on May 3 but was canceled on May 12 after overlaps emerged between the leaked guess sheet and the actual paper, leading to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation and the arrest of 13 people.
NEET (UG) is the national entrance examination conducted by NTA for admission into undergraduate medical programmes.
The government’s ban on Telegram, which is widely used by students to share study materials, later reached the Delhi High Court, which on June 19 upheld the government’s decision to ban Telegram for six days before the NEET-UG re-examination.
The court said there were sufficient reasons to reach the decision to protect the interests of millions of students appearing for the exam, HT reported earlier.
Court officials alleged in earlier hearings that some Telegram channels – some called “Private Mafia” and “PAPER LEAKED NEET” – sold fake question papers for up to $$10,000, while officials exploited the platform’s message editing feature, which changes content without updating the timestamp, to fabricate “proof” of the leaks after testing. Takedowns on every channel continued to fail with removed channels appearing through mirrors – the government’s stated reason for banning the platform completely ahead of re-examination on Sunday.
