DAVE King’s protracted takeover of Rangers has been thrown into fresh doubt after an unprecedented legal bid was made trying to force him to buy an additional £11 million of shares in the club.

The Takeover Appeal Board (TAB) ruled last month that Mr King had “worked in concert” with three others to take control at Ibrox in 2015 and ruled they had secured more than 30 per cent of the voting rights in Rangers.

This meant under the code of takeovers and mergers, they should make a cash offer of 20p a share to all other shareholders.

But South-Africa based Mr King, who vehemently rejected the findings, did not meet Wednesday’s deadline to make any offer and on Thursday the TAB lodged papers at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to try and force him to comply.

It is a highly unusual move by the regulator and is the first time ever it has lodged court action against a takeover in Scotland since the body was formed more than 50 years ago.

Mr King has said the original panel committee had “fundamentally misinterpreted” what had occurred at Rangers.

It comes just a week after Mr King stepped down as executive chairman of a South African investment firm which was fined £64,000 for breaching financial rules.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), fined Mr King’s Micromega Holdings Ltd for failing to follow regulations over the purchase of more than four million shares worth nearly £641,000.

In 2013, Mr King agreed to a payment of £44million to South African tax authorities in respect of his income tax and the tax liability of Ben Nevis, a trust company managed out of Guernsey.

He also accepted liability in respect of 41 lesser counts of contravening Section 75 of the Income Tax Act.

In the Rangers case, the group - which includes Park’s Motor Group founder Douglas Park, Rangers Supporters Trust and Rangers First member George Taylor and Rangers fan George Letham - has always denied they had acted “in concert” to purchase shares in the club .

But the TAB ruled that King initially cooperated with Letham on two successive proposals concerning Rangers and was ordered to buy up every share not owned by himself or the other members of his concert party, which is around £11 million.

The proceedings raised in the Court of Session have no bearing on Rangers International Football Club Plc or The Rangers Football Club Ltd.

If the Takeover Panel is successful in forcing King to make an offer, and he fails to comply with the court order, it will be up to the court how he is dealt with.

The Takeover Panel also has separate disciplinary processes and sanctions, the toughest being “cold shouldering” which would bar any company or individual authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority from acting for those sanctioned.

Mr King stated in March it was his belief TAB had “not understood the true nature of what occurred at Rangers and the tremendous role that the activism of supporters played in ensuring regime change”.

He added it was his belief an offer priced at 20p a share did not represent a “fair price for RIFC’s shares”. A spokesman for Mr King said he wouldn’t be making any media comment.