NEET UG Re-Exam 2026: Telegram App Banned In India Until June 22

New Delhi: The Central Government has begun taking strict measures ahead of the NEET re-exam and officially banned the messaging Telegram until June 22 across the country. Furthermore, users will not be able to edit Telegram messages until June 30 and the NTA has welcomed the government's decision regarding the ban. 

What is the reason of ban?

The temporary ban on the messaging Telegram until June 22 comes on the direct recommendations of the National Testing Agency (NTA) to prevent paper leaks and cheating rackets ahead of the upcoming NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination.

As per the official statement released by the NTA, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has invoked emergency powers under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 to enforce strict, time-bound restrictions on the platform.

What did the NTA say?

The NTA said that cheating gangs allegedly used Telegram to defraud NEET candidates and make false claims of paper leaks. The Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center (I4C) has assisted in shutting down several Telegram channels, groups, and bots based on information received from the NTA and state police.

The NTA said that the platform-level restrictions were imposed only after cracking down on individual channels failed to completely eliminate the threat. Channels with names like "Paper Leak" and "Re-Exam 2026" allegedly demanded thousands to lakhs of rupees from candidates for fake papers. 

What did NTA say about the ban of Telegram?

The NTA claimed that Telegram's editing feature allowed admins to replace old files with new ones, while keeping the original timestamps unchanged; this created misleading "evidence" after the exam.

The NTA stated that this restriction will impact genuine users, but it will only apply for the duration of the exam and is intended to maintain the fairness of the exam. The NTA has assured candidates that the re-examination scheduled for June 21, will be conducted as scheduled and urged students to rely only on official information from the NTA.