Clarification on media reports regarding Supreme Court proceedings in BPCL ethanol allocation matter
Union Government rejects media claims that the E20 ethanol blending programme was described before the Supreme Court as an “experiment”; the Attorney General sought transfer of related cases and maintenance of status quo in the 2025-26 ethanol supply year.
- The ministry clarified that media reports misrepresented the Union Government’s submissions before the Supreme Court in the BPCL ethanol-allocation matter.
- The Attorney General informed the Supreme Court that similar writ petitions on identical ethanol-allocation issues are pending before different High Courts.
- The Supreme Court viewed that proposed transfer petitions should be filed and that status quo may be maintained for the present matter.
The Ministry of Law and Justice has clarified that the Union Government did not describe the **E20** ethanol blending programme as an experiment before the **Supreme Court of India**. The clarification matters because the dispute sits at the intersection of **judicial process**, **energy policy**, and the supply of ethanol to Oil Marketing Companies for petrol blending.
What happened
The Office of the Attorney General for India said some media reports published on **30 June 2026** incorrectly reported the submissions made before the Supreme Court in proceedings arising from a Special Leave Petition filed by **Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)** in an ethanol-allocation matter.
The dispute can be used to test the governance of a national biofuel programme, the role of the Supreme Court in resolving parallel litigation, and the policy trade-off between uninterrupted fuel blending and allocation disputes among Oil Marketing Companies.
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