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Informist, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – A public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court on Friday, seeking direction to the government to ensure the availability of non-ethanol blended petrol as well on all petrol pumps across the country and a mandatory labelling of ethanol content in the fuel.

 

 

In 2021, the government said it would move to 20% ethanol blending in petrol by 2025 with goals of cutting carbon emissions and reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil. The vehicles modified to be compatible with the new composition started being rolled out from April. However, the government's push for 20% ethanol-blended petrol left vehicle-owners worried about the impact on their older vehicles and about a surge in maintenance costs.

 

Through a notification in 2022, the oil marketing companies were permitted to sell up to 20% ethanol blended petrol. Under ethanol blended petrol programme, oil marketing companies saved 4.3 billion litres of petrol on account of ethanol blending during the ethanol supply year 2021-22 resulting in an approximate savings of more than INR 200 billion of foreign exchange.

 

 

According to the petition, the government had notified the ethanol blended petrol programme to the extent of blending 20% ethanol and 80% petrol. This was in existence without any awareness to the public at large and is adversely affecting millions of Indian vehicle owners due to lack of compatibility of their engines with higher ethanol blends, said Akshay Malhotra, an advocate and the petitioner.

 

The petitioner said that its grievance concerned the non-availability of ethanol-free  petrol, resulting in mechanical damage, economic loss, and performance issues to vehicles not designed or certified to run on ethanol blended fuel to the extent of 20% petrol. This violated the Right to Life under Article 21, and the Right to Informed Consumer Choice under Article 19, and the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, said the petitioner.

 

Millions of Indians are unaware that the petrol in their vehicles is not 100% petrol but a mix of ethanol and petrol, which vitiates the basic component of an informed consumer choice due to non-disclosure of a material fact to the consumer, said the petitioner. The only petrol available at present at the petrol pumps is ethanol blended petrol and the said composition has been introduced at the petrol pumps without any information or display at the petrol pumps, the petitioner added. The public at large is not even aware that petrol which is available today is blended with 20% ethanol and the same is not compatible with their vehicles, said Malhotra.

 

Malhotra said that the vehicles which were manufactured in India before April 2023 were not compatible with ethanol mix petrol and the vehicles as recent as two years old, though BS-VI compliant, are also not compatible with ethanol mixed petrol, wherein the percentage of ethanol is 20%. The technical evidence as available and the advisories issued by various automobile manufacturers highlight that ethanol content in petrol causes corrosion of engine parts which results in lower fuel efficiency that leads to premature wear and tear of the vehicles and damages the fuel lines, plastic and rubber components, said Malhotra.

 

Further, because of the lower efficiency of the vehicle, consumption of petrol is on the higher side which adds to increased pollution, Malhotra argued. As the vehicles are not compatible with ethanol blended petrol which will result in damage to the said vehicles, the claim raised in this regard will not be covered by the manufacturers or the insurance companies as consumers have violated the terms specified by the manufacturers and insurance companies, said Malhotra.

 

According to the petition, rhe research conducted by the Automotive Research Association of India, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd., and the Indian Institute of Petroleum in 2014-15 has revealed that the use of ethanol blended to the extent of 20% in petrol results in notable degradation of materials, particularly metals and non-metals used in vehicle fuel systems. The petition said that while global practice confirms that in the US, ethanol blended petrol to the extent of 10% is standard but the normal petrol without ethanol blending was also available.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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