An important news has come out regarding LPG gas cylinders. Since the war between Iran and Israel, there has been a shortage of crude oil and LPG gas cylinders. Due to this, the government has taken several important steps from time to time to ease the supply of gas cylinders. During this time, government oil companies in India had implemented a digital authentication system for the distribution of 14.2 kg domestic gas cylinders. This is causing problems for LPG consumers, especially those living in villages. Similarly, the Mumbai High Court has asked the government to reconsider this decision.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the central government and public sector oil companies to consider a petition requesting the continuation of the offline LPG cylinder booking and distribution system. The high court said the digital authentication system could be continued with some relaxations.

Jaiprakash Tiwari, president of the LPG Distributors Association, has filed a petition in the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court. In the petition, he states that the mandatory OTP verification system implemented by state-owned oil companies for the distribution of LPG cylinders is causing serious problems. He also drew the High Court's attention to the availability of connectivity issues in rural and remote areas.

Jaiprakash Tiwari also argued that customers often don't receive OTP codes due to network failures, technical issues, and website outages. This causes delays or disruptions in cylinder delivery. Therefore, he demanded that a delivery authentication code system be considered for the distribution of domestic gas cylinders.

Hearing the petition, a bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Raj Wakode directed the oil companies to make a decision within three weeks, and the petition was subsequently dismissed. During the hearing, lawyer Shyam Ahirkar stated that the oil companies initially implemented a digital authentication mechanism for 50 percent of distributions. This was later increased to 95 percent.

Then, on April 4, 2026, a message was sent via WhatsApp, mandating a digital authentication mechanism for 100% LPG distribution. It also warned that distributors would face action if they supplied gas cylinders without a digital authentication mechanism.

PC: Pune Pulse