The Government of India has rejected the reports that the Attorney General made a submission before the Supreme Court, terming 20% Ethanol Blended Petrol (E20) Programme ‘still an ongoing experiment’. The Ministry of Law and Justice said in a statement that the remarks attributed to AG is incorrect and at no point during the hearing of the BPCL case was such an argument made.
The ministry said that the Office of the Attorney General for India has noticed certain media reports published on 30 June 2026, which have incorrectly reported the submissions made by the learned Attorney General before the Supreme Court in the proceedings arising out of the Special Leave Petition filed by the Oil Marketing Company (BPCL) in the ethanol allocation matter.
“The reports state that the Government’s 20% Ethanol Blended Petrol (E20) Programme is “still an ongoing experiment” and that the impact of the policy would become clearer by next year. These reports are completely false and do not reflect anything even close to the actual submissions made before the Hon’ble Court,” said the Ministry.
It further said that during the hearing, the Attorney General submitted that similar writ petitions involving identical issues concerning allocation of ethanol to Dedicated Ethanol Plants are presently pending before different High Courts and informed the apex court that Transfer Petitions are being filed for transfer of such matters to the Supreme Court.
The AG said that the transfer of such cased to the SC will help avoid parallel proceedings and the possibility of conflicting decisions. “This step is also likely to enable expeditious resolution of the litigation, so that supplies of ethanol to OMCs to maintain 20% blending with petrol throughout the year is not impacted, under the Ethanol Blended Petrol Programme which is a national programme. Considering the above submission, the Hon’ble Court viewed that the proposed Transfer Petitions be filed and status quo may be maintained in respect of the ethanol allocation for the current Ethanol Supply Year (2025-26), insofar as the present matter is concerned,” said the Ministry.
The Ministry categorically rejected the media reports and said 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’.
“It is clarified in explicit terms that any suggestion that the Government described the E20 programme before the Supreme Court as an experiment is incorrect and does not represent the submissions made on behalf of the Union of India,” said the Ministry.
Notably, several media reports claimed that Attorney General R Venkataramani informed the apex court that the ethanol allocation process had already been completed in October 2025. He warned that since supply contracts have been finalised, reopening of individual allocations could disrupt the nationwide programme.
“This will impact the national policy…The government is trying to experiment with 20% ethanol blending. We will have results of that by next year,” the AG reportedly said. However, the government has now rejected the reports saying that no such remark was made by the AG.
