In a major setback for Telegram, the Delhi High Court on Friday rejected its petition challenging the Centre's decision to block the app till June 22. As per the government, the block was implemented to prevent paper-leak in the NEET UG re-examination scheduled to be held on June 21. The temporary ban was imposed on the recommendation of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education.
The court highlighted that the Centre has followed the procedures in Section 69A, adding that the reasons provided by the authorities were sufficient to continue the temporary ban given the emergency nature. "After considering all the arguments, we find that given the emergency nature, the reasons supplied are sufficient and government has followed the procedure in Section 69A," the court said.
Earlier on Thursday, the Centre told the High Court that Telegram failed to prevent the NEET-UG paper leak. It stated that the concerned authorities identified several Telegram channels, groups and bots that were involved in spreading leaked exam papers and fraudulent activities related to the NEET exam.
It pointed out that Telegram has emerged as a platform for illegal activities, adding that those are hard for the authorities to track due to the functioning of the platform. "Telegram has become the new dark web, linking threat actors. Criminals have rapidly adopted Telegram to post links on channels that connect to dark web forums through deep web links, making it hard for authorities to track and attribute criminals," the Centre submitted.
"It has been observed that Telegram is being exploited for illegal activities including drug trafficking, cybercrime, extremism, terrorism, child exploitation, and cyber scams and frauds, primarily due to privacy features," it added.
However, Telegram had stated that it was not responsible for the paper leak, adding that the government was blaming the platform for its failures.