MP High Court Warns Of Contempt As Gwalior Civic Body Caught Repairing Road Before Quality Testing

The Madhya Pradesh High Court's Gwalior bench has pulled up the Municipal Corporation after its Commissioner was found to have secretly repaired a road two days before a court-appointed commission was to collect samples from it, an act the court saw as a deliberate attempt to defeat a pending public interest litigation over the dismal condition of city roads.

A division bench of Justice G. S. Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla was hearing a PIL filed by Kailash Chand Agrawal, alleging that several roads in Gwalior, built and maintained by the Municipal Corporation, NHAI and the PWD, were badly constructed and had deteriorated soon after being laid.

To verify these allegations, the court had earlier constituted a three-member commission to collect core samples from selected roads and get them tested. By its August 13 order, the bench approved a shortlist of eight roads, including a stretch from Beti Bachao Chauraha to Guda Gudi Ka Naka, and added the Senior Superintendent of Police, Gwalior, to the commission to maintain law and order during sampling.

Matters took a dramatic turn on last hearing, when counsel informed the court that a private testing lab had withdrawn from the exercise "under the pressure of some unknown persons." The Bench did not mince words, observing that "some unscrupulous persons are interested in working against the interest of the community at large, maybe with an intention to protect the wrongdoers," and said it would leave it "for the people of Gwalior to decide the fate of such persons."

Later that day, petitioner's counsel Abdhesh Singh Tomar placed photographs and videos showing that Road No. 7, the very stretch selected for sampling, was being dug up and reconstructed using JCB machines and road rollers. Gaurav Mishra, counsel for the Municipal Corporation, admitted to having filmed the work himself. The Commissioner, Sangh Priya, was summoned to court, where WhatsApp messages retrieved from his phone were examined, including one instructing an engineer, "Iske gaddhe bharwao, motorable karwao" (fill its potholes, make it motorable), sent within minutes of a video about the road's poor condition surfacing on Instagram. Calling this "very objectionable" conduct, the court recalled its concession deferring sampling by a day and restored the original date.

The extent of the cover-up became clearer on August 18. Sangh Priya, appearing with an affidavit, conceded that the road had been in a "highly dilapidated condition" for a considerable time and had been repaired "without taking any permission from Court" just two days before sampling. He blamed the damage on unsettled land following a sewage line project floated in 2024, worth over Rs 4.76 crore, but could not produce records showing what compaction measures were taken. Noting the last extension for the sewage work had expired on March 31, 2026, the court observed, "the Corporation is sleeping and woke up only on 16th of August 2026," and said whether this reflected the "model method of managing the affairs of the Gwalior city" was for the Chief Secretary to consider.

Given the "continuous interference," the Bench recalled the previously shortlisted roads altogether, giving the commission full liberty to pick sampling sites of its choice on the day of collection, without any suggestion from either side, and warning that anyone found manipulating the process would face contempt.

Officers were directed to be present in Gwalior by 6 am on August 19, and the Corporation was told to arrange labourers, storage boxes and a photographer to videograph the exercise. Sangh Priya was also directed to hand over the videos, photographs and WhatsApp communications on his phone in digital form on five pendrives, to be kept in the court's custody, while the question of a probe into who pressured the private lab was kept open. The commission may also collect samples near the sewage line, so that the land compaction question can be examined alongside the petition.

The matter will next be heard on August 25.

Case Title: Kailash Chand Agrawal v. The State of Madhya Pradesh and Others

Date of Order: August 18, 2026

Bench: Justice G.S. Ahluwalia and Justice Anuradha Shukla