The Center has decided to restrict access to messaging app Telegram in India for a limited period till June 22. This is being done to crackdown on fraudulent channels claiming to have access to the leaked paper in the wake of the NEET-UG re-examination. It has also issued a direction requiring the platform to disable, in India, the message-editing feature till June 30 as it has been used to fabricate after-the-event “paper leak” evidence in respect of national examinations.In a statement, National Testing Agency (NTA) said it expresses its gratitude to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for “this timely action”, in the interest of students, which will go a long way in helping NTA to be able to conduct safe and secure examinations on June 21. It said that the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), has served as the principal nodal agency coordinating the operational response to the Telegram-based fraud and misinformation targeting NEET (UG) 2026 candidates. “Acting on inputs received continuously from NTA, from State law-enforcement agencies including the police forces of Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and from its own continuous monitoring of public channels and platforms, I4C has secured the prompt take-down of a substantial number of Telegram channels, groups and bots whose names and content openly advertised their fraudulent and misleading purpose,” it added. This was done in collaborating with MeiTY.This sustained inter-agency effort, well in advance of the present platform-level action, is the reason the harm caused by these rackets has been contained to the extent it has, if added It said that the directions issued today by MeitY have been made following references by NTA and the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education.“The directions are a measure of last resort, taken only after intermediate remedies, including the take-down action coordinated by I4C, had been pursued and had not produced, at the platform level, the response required to protect candidates in the run-up to the examination. The calibration of the directions - a narrow platform-access restriction confined to the examination window, together with a feature-specific compliance direction for the post-examination period - reflects an effort to address the public-order concern with the minimum restriction necessary,” NTA added. It added that several channels had been operating openly on the platform under names such as “PAPER LEAKED NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026”, “Private Mafia”, “REE NEET MAFIAA” and similar formulations. These channels demanded sums ranging from a few thousand to several lakhs of rupees from candidates and their families, in exchange for “purported access to the re-examination paper”. NTA said there is no such paper available outside the secured examination chain.It added that disabling the message-editing feature in India through 30 addresses a separate but related concern of using this capability to fabricate after-the-event “paper leak” artefacts: a channel administrator edits an older, innocuous message to insert the actual question paper after the examination has been conducted, and the resulting chat is then circulated as purported “evidence” that the paper was in circulation before the examination. Independent action by State law-enforcement agencies has, over the same period, reinforced the scale and seriousness of the concern.“NTA acknowledges that the access restriction issued by MeitY affects lakhs of citizens who use the Telegram platform for legitimate personal, educational, professional and informational purposes, and sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to them. The access restriction is, by its express terms, confined to the period ending 22 June 2026 - i.e. the day after the examination. The feature-specific direction in respect of the message-editing function, which remains in force through 30 June 2026, does not affect ordinary use of the platform for sending or receiving new messages,” it added. Published on June 16, 2026