India Blocks Telegram Until 2026 Over NEET Exam Cheating

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has restricted access to the Telegram platform in India until June 22, 2026. This measure is specifically aimed at preventing the fabrication of "paper leak" evidence for national examinations, particularly the upcoming NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination scheduled for June 21, 2026. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued these directions based on recommendations from the NTA and the Department of Higher Education.

In addition to the platform-wide restriction, MeitY has directed Telegram to disable its message-editing feature in India until June 30, 2026. These steps are considered a last resort after previous channel-specific takedowns proved insufficient. Cheating networks have been found to use these platform features to create fraudulent evidence of paper leaks after examinations have concluded.

The NTA acknowledged potential inconvenience to legitimate users but assured that examination security is unaffected. The NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination will proceed as planned on June 21, 2026. This action follows efforts by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and law enforcement agencies that have led to the arrest of an inter-State gang involved in running fraudulent channels and tracing significant financial transactions.