Ahead of the NEET-UG re-examination, the Centre has restricted access to Telegram in India till June 22, following recommendations from the National Testing Agency (NTA), as part of efforts to stop fake question papers, misinformation, and alleged paper leak narratives from spreading online.

ALSO READ

Telegram access restricted in India till June 22

According to ANI, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued a formal notification under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, ordering a temporary restriction on the Telegram platform in India.

The restriction will remain in force for a limited period ending June 22, 2026, covering the day of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination and the immediate period after it.

Message-editing feature also restricted

In a separate directive, authorities have also ordered Telegram to disable its message-editing feature in India for a limited period ending June 30, 2026.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) said this step is necessary because the feature has been misused to create after-the-fact claims of “paper leaks” in national examinations.

ALSO READ

As quoted by ANI, NTA said: “Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued notification a direction under Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricting access to the Telegram platform in India for a defined and limited period ending 22 June 2026, covering the day of the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination and its immediate aftermath.”

The statement added, ” A direction requiring the platform to disable, in India, the message-editing feature in respect of messages already posted, for a defined period ending 30 June 2026, addressing the specific structural feature through which the platform has been used to fabricate after-the-event ‘paper leak’ evidence in respect of national examinations.”

Action taken to prevent misinformation

The agency said several channels operating openly on the platform claimed to have access to the NEET re-exam paper and demanded money from students and their families. Some groups allegedly charged amounts ranging from a few thousand rupees to several lakh rupees in exchange for what they claimed were leaked question papers.

The channels used names such as “PAPER LEAKED NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia” and “REE NEET MAFIAA”.

NTA added that no examination paper exists outside the secured examination system and said every promise of access to such material was fraudulent. “There is no such paper available outside the secured examination chain. The promise of any such material is, in every instance, a fraud,” the agency said.

Seperately, NTA highlighted how the edit feature allows administrators to change or replace attached files while keeping the original timestamp unchanged. Authorities say this capability has been misused in several examinations to create fake “paper leak” evidence after an exam has already taken place.

In such cases, an administrator allegedly edits an old and harmless message after the examination, inserts the actual question paper and then circulates screenshots as supposed proof that the paper had been available before the test.

The government said disabling the feature until June 30 would prevent such fabricated claims from being created and spread after the NEET re-examination.