The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ordered a suo motu criminal contempt petition against Vijayraghavgarh MLA Sanjay Satyendra Pathak, months after he allegedly tried to phone a sitting judge who was hearing a case linked to illegal mining allegations against him.

The order was passed by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf on a petition seeking judicial action over the conduct. The contempt petition has been listed for April 6, 2026.

Referring to Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, which defines criminal contempt as any act that interferes with or obstructs the administration of justice, the bench observed: “We are prima facie of the view that the conduct of respondent No. 7 may amount to a criminal contempt.”

The Registry has been directed to register the suo motu proceedings, which will be heard on April 6.

The episode dates to September 2025, when Justice Vishal Mishra disclosed from the Bench that Pathak had attempted to call him over a writ petition pending before his court. “Mr. Sanjay Pathak has made an attempt to call me to have a discussion regarding this particular matter. Therefore, I am not inclined to entertain this writ petition,” Justice Mishra said. He then recused himself and directed the matter to be placed before the Chief Justice for reassignment to another bench.

The writ petition had been filed by one Ashutosh Dixit, who had first approached the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Bhopal, with allegations of illegal mining. When the EOW failed to conclude a preliminary enquiry within a time-bound period, Dixit moved the High Court, alleging inaction. Pathak, who served as Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in 2016, had filed an intervention application in the case seeking to be heard.