Telegram has revealed names of administrators, their contact numbers and IP addresses of the channels accused of copyright infringement to comply with an order passed by a court in India in a great example of what data the instant messaging platform holds about its users and can be compelled to release by those in authority.

The app operator was compelled by a Delhi High Court order to share the data after a teacher sued the firm for not doing enough to prevent unauthorized distribution of her course material on the platform. Neetu Singh, the plaintiff teacher, said several Telegram channels were re-selling her study materials at discounted prices without permission.

Earlier, an Indian court had also commanded Telegram to comply with Indian law and produce information about people who ran such channels.

Telegram argued in court that disclosure of user information would run afoul of the platform's privacy policy and the laws of Singapore, where it had placed its physical servers to store users' data. The Indian court said copyright owners cannot be left "completely remediless against the actual infringers" since Telegram had chosen to locate its servers outside India.

Justice Prathiba Singh last week said in an order that Telegram had complied with the earlier order and shared the data.

"Let copy of the said data be supplied to Id. Counsel for plaintiffs with clear direction that neither the plaintiffs nor their counsel shall disclose the said data to any third party except for the purposes of the present proceedings. To this end, disclosure to the governmental authorities/police is permissible," the court said (PDF) first reported by LiveLaw.

A Telegram spokesperson declined to say whether the app operator shared private data.

"Telegram stores very limited or no data on its users. In most cases, we can't even access any user data without specific entry points, and we believe this was the case here. Consequently, we can't confirm that any private data has been shared in this instance," Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told TechCrunch.

India is one of the biggest Telegram markets and has nearly reached 150 million users in the South Asian market. This piracy issue, among several other things, made some of the users find fame on this platform, since the place is littered with channels of all sorts easily and widely accessed, often involving tens of thousands of its users where movies and shows are distributed mostly.