Telegram ban in India. On Tuesday, the Indian government put a temporary ban on Telegram ahead of the Re-NEET exam. As the national test agency recommended to put a telegram ban till 21 June. This has been put on the app as a fraudster uses Telegram to leak papers before the exam. On May 3, NEET UG 2026 was affected by allegations of a paper leak, affecting over 23 lakh students. But question why only Telegram is getting banned, not other apps. To know about that, read the lower section.
Why The Telegram Ban?
This all started on May 3 2026, on the date of the NEET UG exam. Over 2 million students sat for the exam, hoping to get a seat in a good medical college. On 12 May 2026, the exam was cancelled due to the investigation that the pre-circulated question paper and the actual paper were found to match. Because of this, on 12 May, the NTA cancelled the entire exam. On the other hand, the case has been referred to the CBI, and the re-NEET exam has been scheduled on 21 June.
What happens to Telegram now?
Many of the users are worried about the Telegram ban, and it is the platform most of the students use to get notes and other information for their courses. But the good is that it has been banned till 22 June. And people who are worried about their chats, then there is a good chance that their chats will stay there only, and none of their important documents will be deleted. On 22 June, after the re-NEET exam, the ban will be lifted from the app, and it will work like before. As the NTA has also acknowledged that the telegram is used by many students and professionals for legitimate purposes, and has expressed regret for the inconvenience.
Legal Bases for The Ban
The telegram ban was imposed on 16, 2026, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000. This is the same law which Indian govt used to block any illegal website or any app which violate the policy and to maintain law and order in society. Telegram banned at the recommendation of the NTA to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
This Has Happened Before
This is not the first exam leak in the country; it has happened many times in the country. In 2024, the NEET UG paper leak was a big scandal of the year. A 13-year-old member of a single family was arrested in that case. Just a week later, the UGC- NEET 2024 paper was leaked, which affected the lives of 9 lakh students and forced a cancellation. Interestingly, this paper was leaked on Telegram. Then, in December 2025, the CSIR UGC NET paper was leaked in Haryana.
so this is not the first time that the nation has faced paper leaks; it has become a regular activity. But the question that arises is how much students will suffer, how many will live, and will suicide be needed to stop this? Every student works hard for one year to sit in an exam and score well and get into their dream college, but some people leak papers for their own good.
This time the government has put a telegram ban, but this will also damage those student how are depend on telegram for their note and other study material. This is not the right way to solve the paper leak problem. The government needs to find a permanent solution for this, or else more students will be affected in the future.
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