Instant messaging platform Telegram has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the Central government decision to ban its operations in India till June 22 in view of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate (NEET-UG) re-exams.

Advocate Madhav Khosla mentioned the matter before a vacation bench of Justice Tejas Karia and the Court agreed to hear the matter today on an urgent basis.

Khosla told the Bench that Telegram has over 150 million users who have been affected by the government's ban.

The government temporarily banned the messaging platform, citing concerns that it had been used by organised cheating networks involved in the NEET-UG controversy. The decision followed the cancellation of the original NEET examination after allegations of widespread paper leaks and irregularities.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) issued a direction under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, restricting access to the Telegram platform in India till June 22.

Another order was issued directing the platform to disable, till June 30, the message-editing feature for messages already posted.

The government has described the measure as necessary to protect the integrity of the re-examination scheduled for 21 June. Authorities argued that Telegram channels were being used to distribute leaked or fake question papers, coordinate fraud and manipulate message timestamps through the platform’s editing feature.