RANGERS kingpin Dave King has begun court proceedings to be allowed into the corridors of power at Ibrox.
The executive has presented a petition to the Court of Session to be allowed to be a director of the holding company Rangers International Football Club plc and to become part of the management of the operating company The Rangers Football Club Ltd.
The process was started under section 216 of the Insolvency Act, as he was a former director of the oldco under the leadership of former owner Craig Whyte which went into administration and is now going through a liquidation process.
That meant that King had to obtain the leave of the court to join the board.
The court has made an order dated March 18, that the petition be "intimated on the Walls of Court", advertised in the Edinburgh Gazette and The Herald and served on "certain parties".
It allows any person claiming an interest in the petition to lodge answers to it "within eight days of the intimation, service and advertisement".
The previous board had previously warned in an announcement to the Stock Exchange on February 5 that his appointment to the board "would be in breach of section 216 of the Insolvency Act 1986", without being sanctioned by the court.
Their warning came as they agreed to a requisition by King to hold a crunch shareholders meeting to oust directors who were sympathetic to Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.
The meeting on March 6 resulted in a landslide victory for King, resulting in the removal of existing board members Derek Llambias and Barry Leach and the appointment of King and associates Paul Murray and John Gilligan.
The old board said in the February 5 statement: "Subject to certain limited exceptions, section 216 requires a person to obtain the leave of the court before becoming a director of a company if, in the preceding five years, that  person was a director of a company which went into liquidation whilst they were a director (or within one year of their ceasing to be a director) and the name of the new company of which they wish to be a director is the same as, or similar to, the name of the company which went into  liquidation.
"This section applies to Mr King given he was, at the relevant time, a director of the company which previously owned the Rangers Football Club. This means that if he were to become a director of the company without such leave then, unless he fell within one of the limited exceptions, he would be committing a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment or a fine or both."
Mr King stepped back from joining the Rangers board to get himself cleared as a 'fit and proper' person to hold a directorship of a company floated on the Aim stock market in Britain. He also faces an examination by Scottish football's ruling body, the SFA.
It came after Manchester-based WH Ireland quit as the club's stock market nominated adviser (Nomad) citing concerns that he was taking control.
That led to shares in the holding company Rangers International Football Club plc being suspended from trading on March 4.
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