Union government has temporarily restricted Telegram in India until June 22, 2026, following a request from the National Testing Agency (NTA). This decision comes ahead of the NEET-UG re-exam scheduled for June 21, 2026.
According to the NTA, several Telegram groups were selling fake exam papers and tricking students into paying money. These groups even edited old posts to make it look like they had advance access to real question papers. Such activities created panic among students and parents.
To stop these scams, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) ordered telecom operators to block Telegram. The app was also removed from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. This is the first time India has blocked a major messaging app at such a scale, even if only for a short period.
NTA Director General Abhishek Singh urged parents to protect their children from fraud and assured that the exam will be conducted in a fair and secure manner. The agency admitted that the restriction affects lakhs of genuine users but said it was necessary to safeguard students.
The government also directed Telegram to disable message editing till June 30, as scammers were using this feature to fake documents.
The NTA stressed that the move is temporary, targeted, and will be lifted soon once the exam is over.
