Govt denies calling E20 programme an ‘experiment’ in Supreme Court

The Office of the Attorney General for India has issued a clarification stating that media reports published on June 30 claiming that the government described the 20 percent Ethanol Blended Petrol (E20) programme as an “experiment” before the Supreme Court are incorrect.

It was reported that while hearing Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s appeal against a Karnataka High Court order, the Attorney General told the court that the E20 programme was, quote unquote, an “experiment” and that its impact would be “clear by next year”. The Karnataka HC’s order mandates that government-owned oil companies must honour their contractual agreements to purchase specific volumes of ethanol from a dedicated factory, preventing them from unfairly reducing orders. The Supreme Court, however, has put a hold on the order as oil companies argued that it could affect the nationwide E20 rollout policy.  

It has been a little over a year since the nationwide rollout of E20 petrol, which has caused a lot of stir, especially among owners of older vehicles who have been experiencing drops in fuel efficiency.

What did the clarification mention?

According to the statement, reports suggesting that the Attorney General told the court the E20 programme was “still an ongoing experiment” or that “the impact of the policy would become clearer by next year” are “completely false” and do not reflect the submissions made on behalf of the Union of India. The Attorney General’s office emphasised that “at no stage was any submission made that the government’s Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme or the E20 blending programme is an ‘experiment’.”

The Attorney General’s office said that during the hearing, the submissions before the Supreme Court were confined to the litigation surrounding ethanol allocation to dedicated ethanol plants. It informed the court that similar writ petitions involving identical issues are pending before different high courts and that transfer petitions are being filed to bring the matters before the Supreme Court for a common adjudication.

According to the clarification, the purpose of the proposed transfer is to avoid parallel proceedings and the possibility of conflicting judicial decisions while enabling an expeditious resolution of the litigation so that ethanol supplies to oil marketing companies for maintaining 20 percent ethanol blending with petrol under the national EBP programme are not affected.

The statement also said that after considering these submissions, the Supreme Court held that the proposed transfer petitions should be filed and that the status quo should continue with respect to ethanol allocation for the current Ethanol Supply Year 2025-26 insofar as the present matter is concerned.

With inputs from Mukul Yudhveer Singh