The Bombay High Court on Monday allowed Union minister Nitin Gadkari to file a civil suit against Meta, Google and X for allegedly defamatory content being circulated on their social media platforms linking him to a row about the government’s ethanol-blending programme, reported Live Law.

The E20 programme is a national initiative to blend 20% ethanol with 80% petrol. The initiative has received criticism from vehicle owners who have alleged that E20 fuel was reducing mileage and damaging cars.

Apart from the technology companies, Gadkari has named the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications as respondents to his plea.

The Union minister of road transport and highways stated in his petition that the E20 programme was being administered by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and that he had no role in it, reported The Indian Express.

He alleged that the social media content linking him to the programme consisted of “profane and abusive language” directed at him, which cannot be considered “legitimate political criticism or satire”.

The minister also claimed that the content unlawfully uses his personality and publicity rights without his consent.

Unknown persons have been circulating posts claiming that Gadkari and his family profited from the E20 initiative, said the plea. It has described the claims as “false and defamatory”.

Earlier this month, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Nagpur city social media cell convener had filed a complaint against several social media content creators for allegedly running a defamatory online campaign against Gadkari.

Consumer concerns about E20

An opinion poll by LocalCircles published on July 5 showed that 53% of the surveyed petrol vehicle owners said that they believe that the government’s handling of the E20 rollout was “disastrous” or “ineffective”.

Sixty-six percent of the respondents said that they were experiencing a more than 10% drop in mileage with E20. Forty-five percent of the surveyed users said that their cars had suffered a moderate to major increase in wear and tear, or needed repairs, according to the polling conducted in June.

A report in October, which analysed government and industry data, said that only about 20% of new petrol vehicles sold in India in the last 15 years were compliant with the E20 fuel blend.

Gadkari has claimed that while the average mileage of vehicles may have marginally reduced because of blending petrol with ethanol, the claims made online about damage to cars are “overblown” and part of a “false narrative”.

Edited by Sneha.