Jabalpur, Jul 23 The Madhya Pradesh High Court has accepted an unconditional apology tendered by BJP MLA and mining baron Sanjay Pathak with a warning not to try to contact a judge in future.
The court issued the warning to Pathak while disposing of a suo motu (initiated by the court itself) criminal contempt petition against him for telephoning a judge who was hearing a plea seeking a probe into alleged mining irregularities involving his firm.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Vivek Rusia and Justice Pradeep Mittal said on Wednesday, “We are satisfied that the contempt is not of such a nature that it did substantially interfere with the due course of justice. Hence, we are inclined to accept the unconditional apology tendered by him.”
The court noted that Pathak submitted an affidavit mentioning an unconditional apology to the court as well as to the judge.
“However, we put a note of caution that a contemnor, who is a member of the legislature, is expected not to repeat such an act and should be careful in future,” the court warned.
According to the MLA, on or around August 30, 2025, a call was made to the judge by mistake, and after realising the same, it was immediately disconnected. Thereafter, an introductory message was sent out of courtesy.
Furthermore, the affidavit expressed again unqualified regret and remorse for the missed call made “inadvertently”.
The HC had on April 2 directed registration of a criminal contempt case against Pathak for allegedly attempting to contact a judge in connection with an illegal mining case.
The judge subsequently recused himself from hearing a petition linked to the case. He had then said that Pathak attempted to call him to “discuss this particular matter”, and therefore, he was not inclined to hear the petition.
