Government Clarification on Misreported Supreme Court Ethanol Proceedings
The Office of the Attorney General for India issued a clarification regarding media reports published on June 30, 2026, that incorrectly reported submissions made before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in proceedings arising from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited's (BPCL) Special Leave Petition concerning ethanol allocation matters. The ministry explicitly denied media claims that the Attorney General had described the government's 20% Ethanol Blended Petrol (E20) Programme as "still an ongoing experiment" or that "the impact of the policy would become clearer by next year," stating these reports were completely false and did not reflect actual court submissions.
During the hearing, the Attorney General informed the Supreme Court that similar writ petitions involving identical issues concerning allocation of ethanol to Dedicated Ethanol Plants are currently pending before different High Courts. The government is filing Transfer Petitions to consolidate these matters before the Supreme Court to ensure common questions of interpretation of law arising from the same contractual framework are considered together, thereby avoiding parallel proceedings and potential conflicting decisions. This approach is intended to enable expeditious resolution of the litigation to ensure uninterrupted supplies of ethanol to Oil Marketing Companies for maintaining 20% blending with petrol throughout the year under the national Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme.
The Hon'ble Supreme Court, considering these submissions, directed that the proposed Transfer Petitions be filed and maintained status quo regarding ethanol allocation for the current Ethanol Supply Year (2025-26) in the present matter. The clarification emphasizes that at no stage did the government describe the E20 blending programme as an "experiment" and requests media to report judicial proceedings with accuracy, particularly concerning important national policy initiatives.