The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed Telegram’s petition challenging the Central Government’s emergency blocking order under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The order temporarily restricted access to Telegram until after the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, with Justice Tejas Karia ruling that the ban met constitutional proportionality and fell within the government’s statutory powers, according to medianama.com.
Justice Karia held that Telegram, as a software platform, qualifies as a “computer resource” under the IT Act, thus subject to the blocking order. The court’s judgment upheld the government’s authority to impose platform-wide restrictions during sensitive periods. The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) criticized the ruling, arguing that Section 69A was intended for targeted content removal, not entire platform bans, warning this interpretation risks treating all users’ speech as a single switch to be turned off, per medianama.com.
The ruling highlights ongoing tensions between government control and free speech online, especially during critical events like exams. The IFF referenced the Supreme Court’s Shreya Singhal verdict, which upheld Section 69A only for narrowly targeted content takedowns. MediaNama founder Nikhil Pahwa noted the ban’s implications for internet openness, emphasizing the broader consequences of applying Section 69A to entire intermediaries rather than specific content, as reported by medianama.com.
The Delhi High Court’s judgment is a key precedent on the scope of Section 69A, confirming that software platforms can be blocked entirely under emergency orders. The ban on Telegram remains in effect until the conclusion of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, with the government’s authority to impose such restrictions now judicially affirmed, according to medianama.com.