The Constitutional Cost of Blocking Platforms : Telegram Ban and how it Changes Digital Regulation in India

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

IJLT Blog

Abstract

This piece analyses the larger implications of the six-day blocking of Telegram during the 2026 NEET-UG paper leak crisis. It argues that the Delhi High Court order upholding the ban, on the ground that Section 2(1)(v) of the IT Act extends to entire platforms, represents more than an expansion within the use of Section 69A of the IT Act, but it marks a departure from India's existing model of platform governance, which has relied on safe-harbour obligations rather than the outright disabling of intermediaries. Situating the judgment within the trajectory from Shreya Singhal to the two X Corp. cases, the piece argues that each step of this expansion has been judicially ratified without scrutiny of the requirements of necessity and the least restrictive means, leaving the Telegram order to outlast its own six-day timeline as a precedent for future platform-wide blocking.

Publication Date

7-20-2026

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS