NEW DELHI: The Centre has ordered access to messaging app Telegram restricted across India until June 22, a step the National Testing Agency (NTA) says is meant to shield candidates sitting the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination on June 21 from cheating rackets operating on the platform.The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) issued the direction on Tuesday under Section 69A of the IT Act, covering the test day and its immediate aftermath. A second order requires Telegram to switch off its message-editing feature in India till June 30 — a tool the NTA says rackets misused to plant question papers into old posts and pass them off as proof of a leak.The NTA welcomed the move, calling it “calibrated and bounded in time” and thanking MeitY for acting “in the interest of students.”For weeks, channels with names like “PAPER LEAKED NEET”, “Re-NEET 2026” and “Private Mafia” had demanded anything from a few thousand to several lakh rupees from anxious families, promising the actual paper. The agency was blunt in its rebuttal: “There is no such paper available outside the secured examination chain. The promise of any such material is, in every instance, a fraud.”The crackdown follows arrests on the ground. Ahmedabad City Cyber Crime busted an inter-state gang running eight Telegram channels, with roughly Rs 1.5 crore routed through fake accounts and about a thousand numbers contacted in a single month. Bihar Police’s Economic Offences Unit had earlier warned candidates against such claims, with the I4C under the home ministry coordinating channel take-downs.The NTA admitted the block inconveniences “lakhs of citizens” who use Telegram for legitimate reasons and “sincerely regrets” it, but insisted the restriction ends June 22. “The security of the examination is unaffected by the action taken; it is, in fact, the very purpose of the action,” it said.Amid the noise, the agency offered candidates some reassurance on Tuesday morning, posting that more than 10 lakh students had downloaded their admit cards in roughly 24 hours since the facility opened. “Our tech teams are monitoring the loads on the servers and NTA will ensure that all candidates get their Admit Cards, well in time for the Examination,” it said.The May 3 test was scrapped on May 12 after a leak; over 22 lakh candidates now sit the retest. Candidates have been urged to ignore unverified content online and report fraud to helpline 1930.
