New Delhi, Jun 18 : The Centre on Thursday informed the Delhi High Court that the Telegram messaging app was being exploited for illegal activities ranging from cybercrime and financial frauds to terrorism and circulation of leaked examination papers.
This was stated in an affidavit filed by scientist Mayank working with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology seeking dismissal of the plea by Telegram against the Centre’s action to temporarily restrict access to the app ahead of June 21 NEET-UG re-examination.
Citing a report of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), the affidavit said that the app had become a preferred platform for cybercriminals, who use fake accounts, concealed identities, channels and groups to carry out unlawful activities, including financial frauds, malware distribution, data breaches and circulation of leaked papers.
“Telegram is being exploited for illegal activities including drug trafficking, cybercrime, extremism, terrorism, child exploitation, and cyber scams and frauds, primarily due to privacy features,” the affidavit said.
A vacation bench of Justice Tejas Karia was hearing the Telegram app’s plea against the decision to restrict its access prior to the NEET-UG retest.
On May 12, the National Testing Agency (NTA) had cancelled the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG, held on May 3 for medical admissions amid allegations of paper leak. The matter is currently under investigation by the CBI.
“Telegram has become the new dark web, linking threat actors. Criminals have rapidly adopted Telegram to post links on channels that connect to dark web forums through deep web links, making it hard for authorities to track and attribute criminals,” the affidavit said.
The government also informed the court that the fraud complaints linked to the app on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal rose sharply in recent years, with over 2.75 lakh complaints involving alleged fraud of Rs 3,086 crore reported in 2025 alone.
“Telegram channels with unlimited number of subscribers are designed to broadcast messages to large audiences. The subscribers’ identities are hidden from each other and channel’s creator or selected admins can post messages, while subscribers can only view the content,” the Centre said.
The government also referred to regulatory and enforcement actions taken against Telegram in several countries, including China, Iran, France, Russia, Germany and Brazil, over issues such as non-compliance with local laws, content moderation failures and law-enforcement concerns.
However, the Centre said blocking the entire platform would be disproportionate and contrary to the statutory framework under the Information Technology Act and the IT Rules, 2021, which envisage targeted action against specific unlawful content.
It informed the court that Telegram had been complying with notices issued through the Sahyog portal and had removed or disabled access to all 404 URLs flagged by authorities, including channels linked to alleged NEET paper leaks and examination-related fraud.
The high court has reserved its verdict on the plea after hearing arguments from senior advocate Dhruv Mehta, appearing for Telegram, and Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who represented the Centre.
The court asked both the parties to submit written submissions by 7 pm. (PTI)
