Moscow’s Tagansky court has refused to delay a hearing on blocking the Telegram messenger.

"The court considers that the motion by the messenger’s representatives cannot be satisfied as they had time to prepare for the lawsuit. The court views the request on postponing [the hearing] as delaying the process," the judge said, Kanal24 informs citing TASS.

Earlier on Friday, lawyers of Telegram asked the court to delay for a reasonable time the hearings on a lawsuit filed by Russia’s telecommunications watchdog, which demands the messenger to be blocked.

According to the messenger’s representatives, the court has no objective reasons to consider the lawsuit in such a speedy procedure.

At 10.00 a.m. Moscow Time on Friday, Moscow’s Tagansky District Court will start considering on the merits the watchdog’s demand to block Telegram. The company’s representatives won’t attend the hearing. Founder of the Telegram messenger, Pavel Durov, prohibited his lawyers from participating in court hearings "not to legitimize an outspoken farce by their presence."