India's government has told the Delhi High Court that Telegram was warned about two weeks before it was blocked, and that the platform conceded it could not proactively detect the channels selling leaked exam papers.

The nationwide block, imposed ahead of a national medical exam, disrupted Telegram access well beyond India, reaching users as far away as the UAE.

Telegram says it cooperated throughout and that the ban is unlawful.

What the affidavit says

The Centre filed its affidavit on June 18, according to ANI. It says India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology received multiple complaints about Telegram being used for the alleged paper leak of the NEET-UG 2026 exam, India's national medical entrance exam. The National Testing Agency (NTA) identified channels, groups and bots circulating leaked material and running fraud tied to the exam.

The government says it did not block the app outright.

It first raised concerns directly with Telegram, which the affidavit says acknowledged it had limited ability to detect such content proactively and that its moderators were acting on reported channels.

The affidavit states that authorities initially adopted the least restrictive measure and did not immediately block Telegram. Instead, officials called Telegram representatives for a meeting on June 3, 2026. During the meeting, the Government raised concerns that Telegram was…

— ANI (@ANI) June 18, 2026

Hours later, ANI reported that the Delhi High Court reserved its order on Telegram's plea challenging the ban. The block remains in force while the ruling is pending.

The story so far

Yesterday, BleepingComputer reported that India's block had spilled beyond its borders, disrupting Telegram access as far away as the UAE through a BGP route leak.

Telegram challenged the block in court with company CEO Pavel Durov blaming Indian telecom Reliance, calling it deliberate sabotage and tying it to competition with WhatsApp.

Network researchers read it instead as a domestic block misconfigured into a global leak, noting the autonomous system Durov cited belongs to the insolvent Reliance Communications, not the Meta-backed Reliance Jio.

Reliance Jio has now said the same thing, on the record. In a statement on X, the company rejected Durov's claim outright:

Recent posts on X have led to speculation regarding Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (AS55836) and a BGP route misconfiguration. We categorically clarify that Jio has not been involved in any such incident. Jio continues to operate its network in accordance with global Internet…

— Reliance Jio (@reliancejio) June 17, 2026

The NEET-UG re-exam goes ahead June 21. The block is set to lift June 22, unless the court's reserved ruling changes that first.

Users caught in the disruption can still reach Telegram through a built-in MTProto proxy, as detailed in yesterday's report.