New Delhi, June 16 (IANS). Following the central government’s decision to impose a temporary ban on Telegram ahead of the re-examination of NEET (UG) 2026, the app has been removed from the Google Play Store in India.
Because of this, new users are currently not able to download Telegram through Google’s official Android App Store.
This step has been taken to stop the alleged network of fraud, misinformation and cheating related to the examination, which were allegedly being operated through Telegram. However, Telegram is still available on the Apple App Store.
This development has come to light when the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), acting on the recommendations of the National Testing Agency (NTA), had imposed a temporary ban on Telegram till June 22.
The government says this step was necessary to stop the network of fraud, misinformation campaigns and cheating related to the exam ahead of the NEET (UG) re-examination to be held on June 21.
According to NTA, this restriction has been imposed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and will remain in force during the examination period and immediately thereafter.
The agency said that several channels and groups on Telegram were allegedly being used to spread misleading claims related to the exam paper leak and to dupe students in the name of providing question papers.
Apart from the temporary ban, Telegram has also been directed to shut down its message editing feature in India by June 30.
Officials say that this feature was misused in the past, in which users used to edit old messages and add new files to them, while the original time (timestamp) remained the same, which could create fake evidence of paper leak.
NTA also clarified that despite the claims being spread on social media, no question paper of NEET exam was leaked.
According to the agency, limited action like removing only a few channels, groups and bots was not enough considering the seriousness of the problem, hence it was considered necessary to impose a comprehensive ban.
NTA also appreciated the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C), working under the Ministry of Home Affairs, state police forces and other central agencies for identifying and taking action against Telegram-based fraud networks.
Law enforcement agencies in many states of the country have started investigating alleged examination scams being run through social media and messaging platforms.
–IANS
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