Telegram has been temporarily restricted in India ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination in an effort to curb fraud, misinformation and fake question paper leak claims surrounding the medical entrance test. The NEET-UG 2026 re-exam is scheduled to be held on June 21st.
According to the National Testing Agency which conducts the examination, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has restricted Telegram access in India until June 22nd. Further, the government has also asked the platform to disable its message-editing feature in the country until June 30th.
Why has Telegram been temporarily restricted in India?
The NTA said Telegram’s editing feature is a concern because it can allegedly be misused to create fabricated evidence of paper leaks. According to the NTA, some channel administrators have been editing older messages after an examination is over and replacing attachments with actual question papers. Since the original timestamp remains unchanged, the altered post can appear to show that the paper was shared before the exam took place. Such posts are then circulated on social media as “proof” of leaks, creating confusion among students and undermining confidence in the examination process. The suspension of message editing is intended to prevent such manipulation during the examination period.
The action follows coordinated efforts by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and other law enforcement agencies to tackle Telegram-based fraud networks targeting students. According to the agency, several channels, groups and bots promoting fake NEET question papers have already been removed. Investigators claim some networks collected significant sums of money from students by promising access to examination papers that did not exist.
Students are advised to rely only on official NTA announcements for updates and avoid making payments to individuals or groups promising exam-related material. While the temporary Telegram restrictions may inconvenience some users, the agency maintains that the measures are limited in duration and aimed at protecting the integrity of the examination.
