Never told Supreme Court E20 blending programme is ‘experiment’: Attorney General rejects ‘completely false’ reports

The office of Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani clarified on Monday that the central government never told the Supreme Court that the government’s E20 fuel programme is an “experiment”.

The statement came after several media reports on June 30 cited the Attorney General as telling the Supreme Court during a hearing in an ethanol allocation dispute that the government’s programme to achieve 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol was “still an ongoing experiment” and that its impact would become clearer next year.

As the statement went viral, it drew backlash on social media, with some questioning, "From where are come from, experiments are done on smaller samples and in a controlled environment. How can an entire nation be the sample size for an experiment ??"

Some even shared a purported video of the AG, telling the court that "20% Ethanol petrol blending is something which the government is trying to "experiment"!"

What did Attorney General say in clarification?

A day later, Venkataramani's office termed these reports “completely false” and said they did not reflect “anything even close” to the submissions made before the Court.

“At no stage was any submission made that the Government’s Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme or the E20 blending programme is an ‘experiment’,” Venkataramani stated in a clarification issued through the Ministry of Law and Justice.

The statement added that any suggestion that the government had described the E20 programme before the Supreme Court as an "experiment" was “incorrect” and did not represent the submissions made on behalf of the Union of India.

What was the case being heard?

The clarification pertained to proceedings before the Supreme Court on June 30 in a plea filed by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) challenging a Karnataka High Court order directing oil marketing companies to revisit ethanol allocations for the 2025-26 supply year.

According to the AG’s office, the Attorney General had informed the Supreme Court that similar petitions involving the allocation of ethanol to Dedicated Ethanol Plants were pending before different High Courts across the country.

"During the hearing, the learned 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," the statement read.

"It was informed to the Hon'ble Supreme Court that Transfer Petitions are being filed for transfer of such matters to the Hon'ble Supreme Court so that common questions of interpretation of law arising from the same contractual framework may be considered together to avoid parallel proceedings and the possibility of conflicting decisions, if at all," it added.

"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," it claimed.