New Delhi: The Delhi high court today (June 19) dismissed the messaging app Telegram’s plea challenging the Union government’s temporary ban of the platform to stem NEET re-test paper leaks.Justice Tejas Karia upheld the government’s decision to block Telegram till June 22, offering no relief to the app against the order issued under Section 69A of the IT Act.“R1 [the government] was empowered under Section 69A to direct blocking of access to Telegram. Test of proportionality is satisfied … The government’s measures are least restrictive. It cannot be held that the order is disproportionate,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench.The Delhi high court had on June 18, while hearing submissions, orally asked the Union government if the rights of 150 million users could be blocked just because one set of citizens are appearing in an exam.“Can you block someone else’s right to protect somebody else? Is your exercise of right in facts and circumstances proportional?” asked Justice Karia during the hearing.On June 19, the judge said that the government’s blocking orders were supported by reasons.“The orders do not suffer from non-application of mind. We have also held that under IT Act, there is no reason to exclude the platform from the ambit of ‘information,'” he said.India is Telegram’s largest market and accounts for approximately 22% of the app’s global downloads. Among those affected by the ban are not just those purporting to leak papers but students with study groups on the platform, businesspeople, content creators, and more.The Internet Freedom Foundation has called the shutting down of Telegram “a band aid solution” and a “disproportionate answer to exam fraud.”Following the ban, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov alleged that Reliance Group, in which Meta holds a partial stake, and WhatsApp may have lobbied to impose this ban.The NEET-UG test was cancelled last month after widespread allegations of paper leaks, sparking outrage and a protest movement which has been demanding the resignation of the education minister.