India blocks Telegram until June 22 over NEET 2026 re-exam fraud concerns

India has blocked the Telegram messaging app until June 22, saying the platform has been used to “defraud candidates” taking a national medical entrance examination, the Ministry of Education said in a statement on Tuesday.

The government said it was restricting access to the Telegram platform in India for a defined and limited period. The restriction was issued under a stringent provision of the IT law, which empowers the government to block access to online sites in the “interest of sovereignty and integrity of India”.

Activists have said the provision is used to curb free speech, though Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government says it always acts in compliance with the law and in the public interest.

Last month, the Indian government cancelled a key undergraduate entrance exam for medical colleges known as National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), after authorities discovered its questions had been leaked beforehand.

The paper leaks led to a series of protest by students in different parts of the country, including sporadic demonstrations by India’s viral Cockroach Janta Party demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The government has scheduled a fresh examination for June 21.

The measure on Telegram was taken “in response to the organised use of the platform by cheating rackets to defraud candidates appearing for the NEET 2026 re-examination scheduled on 21 June 2026,” said the Ministry of Education’s National Testing Agency.

Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Telegram application was working in India until at least 0630 GMT on Tuesday.

Telegram has grown rapidly in India and the country is its biggest market by downloads, although WhatsApp remains the dominant messaging platform. That makes the temporary restriction a rare and sweeping intervention for a service used well beyond politics and news.

The government said it “regrets the inconvenience caused” due to the blocking of the application that will affect hundreds of thousands of people but the measure of “last resort,” as the earlier action to take down such content from the platform “had not produced” results.

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea which together serve more than 1 billion mobile connections in India, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they had received and begun implementing the blocking directive.

Alphabet’s Google which operates the Play Store through which a majority of Indian users download Telegram, and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it had been directed to restrict the app in India.

(With inputs from agencies)