Madhya Pradesh BJP MLA Sanjay Pathak, embroiled in a criminal contempt case for allegedly attempting to influence a judge in an illegal mining matter, has been ordered to appear in court despite issuing an apology.
Ruling BJP's MLA and mining baron Sanjay Pathak on Monday issued an unconditional apology through his lawyer in the Madhya Pradesh High Court in a criminal contempt case, but the HC directed him to appear in person at the next hearing on April 21.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf issued the direction after hearing the matter.
Senior advocate and former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Pathak, submitted an affidavit admitting his client's mistake and rendered an unconditional apology on his behalf in the HC.
The bench took the affidavit on record and issued a notice, directing the BJP MLA to remain personally present during the next hearing scheduled for April 21.
Rohatgi argued that punishment in criminal contempt applies when the offence is inexcusable or when the person concerned does not admit the mistake.
He stated that the MLA had admitted his mistake and filed an affidavit seeking an unconditional apology in the HC.
The High Court 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.
Arvind Shrivastava, counsel for petitioner Ashutosh Dixit, had stated that the bench took suo motu (on its own) cognisance and found Pathak's attempt to contact Justice Vishal Mishra over phone to be contemptuous.
He had said that in September last year, Justice Mishra recused himself from hearing a case related to alleged illegal mining.
The judge had then stated that Pathak attempted to call him to "discuss this particular matter", and therefore he was not inclined to hear the petition.
Dixit, a resident of Katni, alleged in his plea that three companies linked to the BJP MLA were involved in "illegal and excessive mining" in the Sihora area of Jabalpur district and on forest land.
According to Shrivastava, his client had stated that the former minister's attempt to contact a High Court judge amounted to interference in judicial process.
Earlier, Justice Mishra had directed that the matter be placed before the Chief Justice at the administrative level.
Dixit alleged that he had filed complaints with authorities, but no concrete action was taken, after which he approached the High Court seeking action against Pathak, MLA from Vijayraghavgarh in Katni district.