The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response from the ministries of electronics and information technology (MEITY) and home affairs and the National Testing agency (NTA) on messaging platform Telegram FZ-LLC’s petition challenging the government's temporary ban imposed on it ahead of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) re-examination scheduled on June 21.While refusing to grant immediate relief to Telegram against the temporary ban till June 22, Justice Tejas Karia asked the government to “place supporting documents” that led to the blocking order by Thursday. The HC will further hear the matter on Thursday at 1430 IST.The ban was imposed to prevent cheating and the spread of fake question papers ahead of the June 21 NEET examination. Telegram has also been directed to disable the message-editing feature for messages already posted till June 30. The IT ministry had also directed Telegram to disable its message editing features till June 30 and ordered the app to be removed from app stores. Subsequently, the messaging service stopped working for existing users in India even though it remained operational through Virtual Protocol Network (VPN). Both Google and Apple also delisted the app in compliance with government orders.The undergraduate medical entrance examination conducted on May 3 was cancelled days after allegations of widespread paper leak and irregularities. It was alleged that the Telegram application was used to circulate leaked questions and communicate with students, middlemen and others linked to the network. The NTA, which conducts the examination, has faced flak from candidates and parents for its inability to secure the question paper.Alleging that the government’s ban is arbitrary and suffered from complete non-application of mind, Telegram told the HC that the government’s order is “grossly disproportionate,” affecting a blanket shutdown of a platform with over 150 million users in India."The impugned order is also vitiated by patent non-application of mind" as it accepts the allegations of NTA at face value and fails to disclose either reasons or the material which has been the basis of banning order,” the petition said.The impugned order does not justify why less restrictive alternatives, such as targeted takedowns of unlawful content were inadequate, or why the entirety of the Telegram application had to be blocked from public access, it said.Senior counsel Dhruv Mehta, appearing for Telegram, argued that the messaging platform had taken “proactive measures” and taken down more than 900 links involving unlawful NEET-related content.Telegram further said that MEITY could not have bypassed the mandatory requirement of a pre-decisional hearing by unfairly and inappropriately invoking the emergency cases provisions.The power under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 is confined to blocking specific “information” and does not extend to blanket blocking of an entire platform or disabling lawful technical features, it added.Telegram had “put in place all reasonable measures, including the deployment of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools (in addition to manual content moderation) as proactive measures to address unlawful information” on the platform, the petition stated.Opposing the Telegram’s petition, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government, said that shocking activities were being undertaken on the messaging platform. Telegram was repeatedly called and informed about the issues and were asked to correct its system, he said, adding that the decision was not “taken overnight.” However, Telegram has failed to correct its system and there is substantial material justifying a temporary ban on Telegram, the SG argued.The government said that Telegram was given a hearing both before and after the banning directions. The channels on Telegram were asking for payments in return for sharing leaked papers, the government. “I have seen the material. We shudder to think if there is any public unrest,” Mehta told the court.Officials told ET the decision to impose restrictions was taken after unsuccessful efforts to work with the company to shut down sharing of alleged leaked exam materials. However, Telegram told the court it has had several meetings with the government since June 1 on the issue and has blocked several telegram channels that the Centre wanted blocked.Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Tuesday said the ban on its messaging app by the government will not stop paper leaks, instead move it on to other apps. In a post on social media platform X, Durov said that the decision to ban Telegram for a week punishes over 150 million users of the app in India and not the insiders who leaked the exam materials.Section 69(A) gives the government the power to issue directions for blocking public access of any information through any computer resource, where it is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence.