Telegram Ban Impact: There will be a ban on the use of Telegram in India till June 22. Under Section 69A of the IT Act of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the use of Telegram across the country has been banned till June 22. The company had challenged this ban imposed by the government in the Delhi High Court.

Hearing the company’s petition, the Delhi High Court rejected the government’s order, refusing to accept it as arbitrary or unfair. The court clearly stated that the government has full right to block any app or digital platform in emergency situations.

What else did the court say?

Rejecting Telegram’s petition, Delhi High Court said that the government’s decision to impose the ban cannot be called arbitrary. This decision of the High Court is being considered as a big blow for Telegram. It is noteworthy that the government had ordered to shut down Telegram by June 22 and deactivate its message-editing feature by June 30. Its purpose was to curb the cheating and paper leak racket in the NEET-UG 2026 examination, which the company had challenged by filing a petition in the Delhi High Court.

How many Telegram users are there in India?

Telegram has between 104 million and 150 million active users in India, which makes it the largest market for Telegram in the entire world. In such a situation, if the ban remains in force only till June 22, then there will be no immediate major direct loss to the company’s revenue. However, during this period, the income from in-app advertising from India will stop completely. Telegram has millions of paid users in India. Due to the app being blocked, new subscriptions are banned. This has affected the cash-flow of the company.

broken confidence of investors

Telegram is already a loss making company. Despite revenue of $870 million at the beginning of 2025, the company had suffered a loss of more than $220 million. Now, due to the ban in India, the company’s credibility among global investors will be weakened. In such a situation, it may face problems in getting funding in future. This may have a negative impact on the market valuation.

Company CEO Pavel Duraev said on the ban on Telegram, 15 crore users will be punished for the ban on Telegram in India, and not those insiders who leaked the paper material. Leaks will not stop, due to ban scammers will shift to other apps.

India’s IT ministry banned Telegram for one week because some users shared leaked exam questions.

This punishes 150M+ ordinary Telegram users in India — not the insiders who leaked the exam materials.

And the ban hasn’t stopped anything. The leaks just moved to other apps. https://t.co/CzQWN4mXfb

—Pavel Durov (@durov) June 16, 2026

Is Telegram banned forever?

It has already been said by the government that Telegram has been banned for a temporary and limited time. NEET-UG re-examination will be held on June 21, 2026. After this is completed safely, the ban on the app will be removed. Earlier on May 3, 2026, the exam had to be canceled after the NEET-UG paper was leaked. Investigation found that scammers are indiscriminately selling exam related materials on Telegram channels. Due to this, the government imposed a temporary ban on it before the re-examination was held on June 21.

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