The Indian Law Reports Act was enacted in the year 1875. The State of Madhya Pradesh came into being in the year 1956. Hon'ble Chief Justice vide order dated 1st of November 1956 constituted temporary Benches of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Indore and Gwalior. Later, by a Presidential Notification dated 28th of November 1968, issued in the exercise of the powers conferred by the Sub-section (2) of section 51 of the States Reorganization Act, 1956, permanent Benches of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Indore and Gwalior were established. This state of affairs continued till 1st of November 2000, when the State of Chhattisgarh was carved of the existing State of Madhya Pradesh by virtue of the provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2000. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur then became High Court for the successor state of Madhya Pradesh.

The Government of Madhya Pradesh, Law Department made rules regarding publication of The Indian Law Reports M.P. Series and Notification in this regard was published in the State Gazette in the year 1957. A Law Reporting Committe was constituted accordingly and the High Court of Madhya Pradesh Jabalpur, since inception, has been publishing The Indian Law Reports M.P. Series. Earlier it was being published from Bhopal but considering the difficulties in that process, it was decided to print and publish at Jabalpur itself. In the year 2008, work of compiling 50 Years’ Digest (1956-2006) was undertaken. Publishing of Head Notes in Hindi was also started in the same year. The Indian Law Reports Madhya Pradesh Series was got registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India, New Delhi in the year 2009, bearing number MPBIL/2009/32366 and also with Postal Department, resultantly, the subscribers of The Indian Law Reports are getting subsidy in Postal charges by the Postal Department. In the year 2011, the 50 Years’ Digest (1956-2005) and 5 Years’ Digest (2006-2010) were made available.The long awaited 5 years’ Digest (2011-2015) of ILR M.P. Series was published in the year 2020. A Full Bench Digest (1956-2020) was also published in the year 2021. Even during the Covid-19 period, ILR continued to publish its regular issues facing all the storms of the time, without breaking continuity of its publication.

The demand for ILR books has been increasing manifold day by day. With the publication of Yearly Digest-2023, the publication works of ILR M.P. Series, is now fully updated. 5 years’ Digest (2016-2020) was released in November-2023, 2 Years’ Digest (2021 & 2022) in December-2023 and Yearly Digest-2023 in January-2024. By taking cost reduction measures the annual Subscription Price has been brought down from Rs.1500/- for the year 2021 to Rs.1380/- for the year 2024. The Price of ILR monthly issues as well as ILR Digests has been fixed with a view to make it affordable to each and everyone interested in keeping oneself updated with the latest pronouncements of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh.

A separate website has been launched for the Indian Law Reports MP Series where one can get various information about ILR MP Series including availability of old publication. Facility of making online request for purchase of monthly issues/Digest of ILR MP Series by the subscriber will be provided soon. The work of digitization of ILR is also under process. ILR MP Series issues beginning from the 1956 are now available in digital form for the valuable readers of the ILR. All ILR M.P. Series’ publications are now available on the webpage of ILR on the website of High Court of Madhya Pradesh.

The old Notification of the year 1957 had not been modified in accordance with new changes occuring from time to time, accordingly the matter was placed before ILR M.P. Committee and on approval by Hon’ble Chief Justice, the draft notification recommended by the Committee was sent to the Law and Legislative Affairs Department, Bhopal. The new Notification of Rules in respect to publication of the Indian Law Reports Madhya Pradesh Series, dated 14.05.2023 have been got published in the M.P. State Gazette dated 19.05.2023.