MP High Court moved for public disclosure of Indore water deaths report

Two petitioners have approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking public disclosure of a nearly 600-page judicial commission report into deaths linked to contaminated drinking water in Indore’s Bhagirathpura. They cited public interest, transparency and accountability, with hearing scheduled for September 8

Indore: Two petitioners on Saturday moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking public disclosure of a judicial commission’s report on the deaths linked to the contaminated drinking water supply in Indore’s Bhagirathpura area.

Making the report public was necessary in the larger public interest, the separate applications filed by Ritesh Inani and Pramod Kumar Dwivedi contended. A single-member commission of former High Court judge Justice Sushil Kumar Gupta has submitted a nearly 600-page report to the court which is hearing petitions related to the issue.

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The High Court had constituted the commission on January 27. Inani, who is a lawyer, said they went through the report at the court registrar’s office as allowed by the High Court. “On a preliminary reading, it cannot yet be determined who is guilty and who is innocent,” Inani told reporters, adding that his application urged that the report be made public.

“The problem of contaminated drinking water is not limited to Indore but concerns the entire state of Madhya Pradesh. We have requested the court to issue directions for the supply of clean drinking water across the state based on the commission’s report,” he said.

Dwivedi, in his plea, sought copies of the report for the petitioners and asked for permission to make it public in the interest of transparency and accountability, said his lawyer advocate Manish Yadav. The next hearing is scheduled for September 8. On August 25, the High Court had directed that the commission’s report should not be made public as of now, but said the lawyers can visit the Office of the Principal Registrar and inspect it.

Bhagirathpura locality witnessed an outbreak of vomiting and diarrhoea in December 2025, leading to several deaths. Local residents and the Opposition Congress put the death toll at 36, while the Madhya Pradesh government stated in the Legislative Assembly that 22 people had died.