The Centre has ordered a temporary ban on access to Telegram in India until June 22 and directed the platform to disable its message‑edit feature in the country until June 30, officials said on Tuesday. The move comes days before the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET‑UG) re‑examination on June 21, which was called after a paper‑leak controversy.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued the order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. According to the NTA, the edit facility on Telegram was being misused to create forged evidence of paper leaks — users were editing old messages to insert question papers or PDFs and later claiming that leaks had occurred before exams.

“The step aims to curb circulation of fabricated evidence and ensure fairness of the re‑examination,” an NTA statement said, adding that the restriction on Telegram’s access will remain in effect through June 22 and the edit feature will be disabled until June 30. The agency acknowledged the inconvenience to ordinary users but called the measures “necessary” for exam integrity.

The NTA said it had exhausted other options before the ban, including requests to remove objectionable content and coordination with law‑enforcement agencies. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), working with police teams in Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan, has already taken action against several Telegram channels, groups and bots linked to exam malpractice and extortion.

Investigations have revealed organised activity on channels using names such as “Paper Leaked NEET”, “Re‑NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia” and variations claiming to supply papers. The Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch has detained members of an interstate cyber‑fraud gang, and the probe has reportedly uncovered around eight Telegram channels, roughly 1.5 crore rupees in transactions and about 1,000 mobile numbers connected to the operation.

The NTA warned students against trusting unverified information on social media and urged them to rely only on official sources: the NEET portal (neet.nta.nic.in) and NTA’s verified handles. “Information related to the exam should only be taken from official channels,” the agency said.

The ban is narrowly timed to cover the re‑exam period; access will be restored after June 22, the NTA added. The temporary disabling of message editing will remain longer to prevent retrospective manipulation of threads that could be used to manufacture false evidence.

Separately, the NTA has altered the NEET‑UG re‑exam format. The duration has been extended from 180 minutes to 195 minutes, and additional space for rough work has been provided on the answer sheet, the agency confirmed. These changes come as part of efforts to accommodate logistics and ensure students are not disadvantaged.

Student groups and legal experts said they expect pushback from users and civil‑liberties advocates over a country‑wide block of an app used by millions. Some noted that blocking platforms is a blunt tool, while others accepted targeted restrictions if backed by clear evidence of criminal misuse. The government has framed the action as a limited, evidence‑driven intervention aimed at preventing large‑scale fraud that could again derail a national exam.

Law‑enforcement agencies are continuing investigations into alleged extortion and paper‑leak networks. The I4C and state police units have been asked to follow leads and identify financial trails, administrators said. Meanwhile, the NTA reiterated that students should avoid rumours and check only official updates about exam timing, centres and protocols.