BHOPAL: Former Madhya Pradesh Minister and mining baron-cum-BJP MLA Sanjay Satyendra Pathak has landed in legal trouble for trying to contact the High Court Judge in an illegal mining case.
A division bench of the MP HC in Jabalpur, comprising Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf, has ordered a case of criminal contempt against the MLA for trying to contact the Judge seven months ago.
In its order on Thursday, the HC’s division bench stated, “We’re prima facie of the view that the conduct of the respondent may amount to a criminal contempt. Accordingly, this petition is disposed of with a direction to the Registry to register a suo motu Criminal Contempt Petition against Sanjay Satyendra Pathak and list it before the Court on April 6.”
In the Thursday’s order, while referring to the concerned HC Judge Justice Vishal Mishra’s order, recusing from hearing an alleged illegal mining matter over Pathak trying to contact him in the matter, the HC’s division bench stated, “It is contended that in order dated September 1, 2025 a learned Judge of this Court has made a reference that an attempt was made to call him to have discussion regarding the said case and accordingly, the Judge has recused from hearing the writ petition. We are prima facie of the view that the conduct of the respondent may amount to a criminal contempt.”
In September last year, Justice Mishra had recused from hearing an alleged illegal mining matter.
The judge had then disclosed that Pathak had attempted to call him “to have a discussion regarding this particular matter,” and that he was not “inclined to entertain this writ petition."
The alleged illegal mining case had come up for hearing following a petition filed by Katni (MP) resident Ashutosh Dixit, who had alleged in the writ petition that three companies associated with the BJP MLA were engaged in “illegal and excess mining” in the Sihora area of Jabalpur district and also in forest land.
Sanjay Satyendra Pathak, a former minister of state in erstwhile BJP government led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP, is the fourth-time MLA from Vijayraghavgarh constituency of Katni district. Prior to him, his father Satyendra Pathak represented the same seat in the Vidhan Sabha as Congress legislator and was a minister in the Digvijaya Singh-led erstwhile Congress government.
Counted among the richest politicians in the state, Sanjay Pathak quit the Vidhan Sabha and the Congress in 2014 and joined the BJP, before winning from Vijayraghavgarh in 2015 as the saffron party’s candidate. He was a minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government between 2016 and 2018. He won the 2018 and 2023 elections from the same seat on BJP ticket only.