India, June 19 -- The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to stay the government's six-day block on Telegram ahead of the NEET-UG re-test, with Justice Tejas Karia dismissing the messaging app's challenge to a June 16 order that temporarily restricted its access across India.

The single-judge bench held that the block satisfied the constitutional test of proportionality and that the government had followed due procedure under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.

The ruling clears the way for the Telegram block to stay in force through Sunday's NEET-UG re-test. The government had restricted access to Telegram till June 22 - a day after the re-test - and separately required the app to disable, till June 30, its message...