[The Quint] Banning Telegram is a Disproportionate Response to the NEET Paper Leak Crisis

Published in The Quint, in this Op-Ed I have argued that:-

This ban has been imposed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. However, the “NEET paper-leak” does not fall in ANY of the six conditions required for invoking the section.

Further, the ban also directly violates the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s guidelines in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, 2015, and Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India, 2020 since it fails the test of (i) rational nexus, (ii) proportionality, and (iii) least restrictive measure.

Finally, banning an Application is an evasive strategy to combat the leak of a paper. Telegram did not “cause” the paper-leak, nor will its ban prevent paper-leak.

Read here – https://www.thequint.com/opinion/government-ban-telegram-neet-paper-leak-own-failure