India, April 2 -- The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday ordered the registration of a criminal contempt case against BJP MLA and mining businessman Sanjay Pathak for allegedly attempting to contact a sitting judge in connection with an illegal mining case.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf issued the direction while disposing of a related petition and rejecting Pathak's objections.

The court took suo motu cognisance of the matter after it emerged that Pathak had allegedly tried to reach out to Justice Vishal Mishra over the phone regarding the case.

The issue came to light in September last year when Justice Mishra recused himself from hearing a petition related to alleged illegal mi...